Page 48 of The Good Boys Club

“Dominance?” I suggested.

“Sort of. More like . . . influence. The wolf who has the highest standing within their own pack and the wider werewolf community will remain where they are, and the other wolf or wolves will join their pack. Does that make sense?”

“A little.” I was beginning to understand were culture, though it was all still extremely confusing to me. “Will Zach become the next alpha?”

Mash sucked in a breath and jerked his hand away from the arch. “Fucking spider,” he said. “Um, no, he won’t. Or, I dunno. Maybe he will.”

I stared at him for two whole minutes. I’d forgotten Zach wasn’t the oldest Cassidy sibling. “Will it be Clem? Clem’s the eldest, isn’t she?”

“It doesn’t work like human monarchies.” Mash laughed, but I’d known him long enough to recognise that laugh as a cover for nerves.

“How does it work?”

He shrugged again. “I’m not sure. It’s just something intrinsic, I think. I think most packs know for certain who the next alpha will be on the successor’s first shift.”

But everyone in his pack had already had their first shift, so they must know who the next alpha would be. Unless it was one of the grandkids. But Felix was what . . . three, four? He wouldn’t have his first shift for at least another eight years.

I wanted to ask Mash more, but I could see it was distressing him so I kept my mouth shut.

After a few seconds of pinning more sunflowers to the arch, he turned to me.

“Yes, it’s Clem. Clem will be the new alpha.” He said it in a way someone might say, “Happy now?”

Mash clearly wasn’t happy about it. Which was odd. I’d figured he’d be stoked for his big sis. It wasn’t as though Mash was an ambitious guy wanting the glory all for himself.

“And,” he continued, his tone evidently still pissed. “It has to happen before Nana dies. The power transfer is supposed be done on the first full moon after the successor turns twenty-five. It’s called the call of the alpha.”

I did the mental calculations. In theory, Mash’s sister should have accepted the call ten, eleven years ago. At least a hundred and twenty full moons had passed in that time. “Clem’s . . . thirty-six, isn’t she?”

“You can reject the call. Like, she doesn’t have to say yes to being an alpha until she’s ready.” He absentmindedly plucked a petal from a sunflower.

“What happens if she rejects it indefinitely?”

Mash said nothing. He stripped the flower of even more petals.

“Can she do that? Or will the duty pass to someone else?” Seemed a little selfish to me, but what did I understand about it all?

“Fuck knows,” was all he said.

“What does your nana have to say?” I asked.

The sunflower was now bald. He tossed it back into the tub and started shredding another. “She’s the most ridiculously patient woman you’ll ever meet. On the outside she’s always like,‘We will wait. These things take time,’blah blah blah. But I overheard her talking to Mam once. She said she’s getting old, and doesn’t have long left, and if she dies before the new alpha takes over, then . . .”

“Then what?” I said after it became clear Mash wouldn’t finish his sentence.

“Then chaos.”

I scooted over to him, removed the third sunflower from his hands before he defoliated another. “What kind of chaos?”

“A pack needs a leader, Ci.” He didn’t elaborate any further on what chaos meant. Whether it would be an internal power struggle, or there’d be outside interference from other rival packs.

“Hey, check this out.” I took the two petal-deprived sunflowers from the tub and tied them together with ribbon. Then I pinned them to the middle of the arch.

Mash stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

“That’s us, that is. Me and you. Even if everything falls apart around us . . .”

You’ll always have me.That was what I wanted to say.No matter what happens, there will always be us.I couldn’t get the words out.

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