Page 49 of The Good Boys Club

Mash seemed to hear them in my silence, or my flushed cheeks. He wrapped his hands around my neck and dragged me to him. “I fucking love you, man,” he said, whilst attempting to crush my head against his sweaty chest. “You’re literally my favourite person ever.

“I know,” I said.

“Good Boys Club forever.”

Only Felix and the other kids seemed to notice the two bald sunflowers tied to the arch. They pointed and giggled, but the adult wolvessshedthem as Zach and Kai walked down the aisle together, looking handsome in their mating outfits.

Mash and I had showered and changed into our suits. I’d helped Mash shop for his, and fuck me sideways, he looked exquisite.

We were twenty-four years old, and all the girls from the other wolf packs made zero attempt to hide their curiosity of him.In the twenty minutes since we’d been seated, he’d received no fewer than seven hastily scribbled phone numbers. He tucked each one into his back pocket without looking at it.

In a couple of months, he’d be twenty-five and “of age,” meaning if he wanted to, he could become mated with any one of them.

I couldn’t think of anything less Mash, so good luck to them. Though I had been playing a mental game with myself and taking bets on which of the girls he’d slink off with that evening.

The handfasting ceremony was beautiful. Clem read out a poem, and so did Kai’s older brother. They had written their own vows, and everyone cried. Especially Mash.

“Fated mates is bullshit,” he leaned over and whispered to me. “But I’m so fucking happy for them.”

We had hankies, with Kai & Zach and the date along with a sunflower motif embroidered onto the cotton. They were party favours, I think. Mash wiped his eyes on his and blew his nose.

After the ceremony, everyone gathered outside the marquee. We had burgers and hot dogs and sat on hay bales while a band played up-tempo folksy songs. Mash spent the evening rebuffing the advances of what seemed to be every single werewolf girl in existence. And if he wasn’t finding some excuse to say no to a drink or dance, he was denying he and I were in a relationship.

“That’ll be you two next,” the fifth old person in a row said to Mash and me. They all meant it in a jesting, teasing way, but it was beginning to get a little too much.

Nobody would accept that we weren’t a couple, so eventually we just started laughing and nodding.

“Come with me,” Mash said.

I followed him because I’d follow him anywhere.

He took us inside the marquee. “Four pints of lager, please,” he said to the barmaid. He handed me two. “This way.”

“Hey, Mash, what are you doing right now?” said a girl with waist-length black hair and very precise eyeliner wings. She placed her hand on his forearm.

He looked at me, then back at her. “I’m going to go for a walk in the woods, drink two pints of beer, and fuck my boyfriend under the light of the moon.”

She removed her touch and gracefully bowed out.

“Oh my gods, that was genius,” I said to him as we left the marquee.

“I have to show you something.” His legs were so long I had to take an extra half step for every three of his. I took a big glug from each plastic pint glass so my shuffling wouldn’t spill it. “I have a place which is . . . it’s my place. Like, a special place. I go there when things are overwhelming, or when I want to be alone. I . . . I’ve never taken anyone there before.”

We walked for twenty-five minutes, which gave me a glimpse into just how large the Howling Pines estate was. Wasn’t surprising that Clem didn’t want to become alpha. There was so much to look after, and that was only the land. It didn’t include any of the people or animals.

Eventually we reached an unremarkable-looking hedgerow. Mash paused, and lifted a section of the bush for me to climb through.

“Mash,” I said, unable to summon any other words as I emerged out the other side. Instantly I got why this was his special place.

A flat dirt-covered area stretched out a few metres before us, that dropped away into a rocky but lush ravine. Trees towered around on three sides, cocooning us, making the space feel both private and like you could see the entire Eight and a Half Kingdoms all at once. It was beautiful. The gorge below morphed into the banks of an endless lake. The sky, now a glittering blanket of stars, reflected off the calm water.

It was one of those places where you could both lose and find yourself. Where you could panic about your existential insignificance, and at the same time, feel like anything was possible.

Mash sat down. He let his legs dangle over the edge of the rocks, and he placed his two beers to the side. I copied him, sat next to him.

“I spent so much of my youth here. Just being alone, you know?” he said, and I nodded. “And wanking into the ravine.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes, because of course he did that. And of course he saw no issue sharing that info.

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