Page 44 of The Good Boys Club

“No, not if you don’t want to. They’re usually fun, though, it’s pretty much everyone going on a big hike and having a gossip.But if you’d prefer, you can stay with Clem in the kitchens and help with the cooking?”

I would much, much rather do that. “So, it’s not like a ‘men hunt, women cook’ kind of deal?”

“Ew, no,” Mash said. “There are no gender roles in our pack. My alpha is my nana, and she leads the hunts. Or well, she used to. Most of my pack are women. You can choose to stay or go wherever you want. There’s no obligation to do anything you don’t want to just because you have a ding dong.”

“Thanks,” I said, feeling a little lighter.

“The first hunt is fishing, anyway, because of the sturgeon moon.”

“I’d still much rather be helping with the food.”

I didn’t mind fishing. Mash and I had been fishing a few times before. I always got him to bash the fish over the head so I didn’t have to, and then we’d gut them together, and I’d cook them. The primary draw for me had been spending several hours alone with Mash, because well, I was addicted to him.

“So, where are most people going to stay? This list has like . . . twenty different packs on it.”

“Most will stay at Clem’s. She has a B&B in town. Some will stay here, at ours. Some with Zach and Kai, some with Mika and Atlas. Some’ll stay in their RVs in the field or in tents. We have electric hook-ups.”

I nodded. Made sense. The last time I was here, the bed and breakfast had been a pipe dream. I was glad Clem had finally got everything she needed to open it.

“Clem’s mate is Sean, right?” I asked.

“Yes. Well remembered.”

“One down, one million to go.”

Mash laughed. “You don’t need to remember all of them. Just the Cassidy wolves, and maybe the Wests.”

“Where’s Dylan, uh, Dee-Dee staying?”

“Not really sure. I guess it depends on when Nana allocated the rooms.”

“What do you mean?”

Mash found a stack of sturdy enough boxes and plonked his backside down. “Well, if the spare bedrooms were divvied up before I told everyone we were mated, you can bet my left knot she’d have put Dee-Dee next door to us.”

“Oh, fuck. What, across the hall?”

There were only two rooms at the end of the west corridor—Mash’s room to the right, and the bedroom that used to belong to Clem, Alba, and Mika, Mash’s three sisters. This morning we had gone in to change the bedding, arrange fresh flowers in a vase, and stack some towels and fancy little soaps on the ends of the twin singles. I had considered the possibility of sneaking into that room at night so I wouldn’t wake up with Mash’s boner crushing my spinal column again, but obviously fate had other plans.

I couldn’t decide whether it would be a good idea to have the woman I was trying to win a job with sleeping opposite me.

“Though, knowing Nana,” Mash continued. “She probably assumed I was lying or wouldn’t bring anyone with me, and decided to stick Dee-Dee and Riley in there anyway. In the hopes that, if that were the case, I’d somehow magically fall in love with her. Or . . . whatever.”

“And Dee-Dee’s single?” I didn’t know why I asked. I already knew.

“Yeah, she’s always been more focused on her career, but her pack is like my pack. They wanna see their kids mated off. They need someone to—” Mash cut himself off.

Okay, I knew why I asked. I was worried. Genuinely worried that Mash might break his libertine lifestyle, fall in love with Dylan, and move back to Howling Pines forever.

Maybe he’d eventually be happy in a monogamous relationship. Maybe I was being selfish, but I liked that I was the person he always confided in. It was my office or my apartment he’d turn up at when he had nowhere else to go. I was the one he told his secrets to.

Kimmy’s voice rang through my thoughts.“But you can’t keep it from him forever.”

I guessed not all of his secrets.

“What happens at the shifts?” I asked, because I didn’t want to dig any further into this whole shit-soup of Mash, Dee, the future, and all the secrets swirling in my mind.

“Well, about half an hour before sunset, everyone will go to the marquee to change out of their clothes. There are little cubbies with people’s names on, but you can strip off wherever you feel most comfortable. Generally, packs undress together, but there’s a section for men and one for women on the other side. Though honestly, nobody gives a shit. Everyone’s seen each other naked so often, nothing fazes anyone anymore.

---