Page 52 of The Good Boys Club

He whined again and rocked his hips, humping me. Fuck. His knots pushed into my pelvis. I was going to die from happiness. Or more likely, I was already dead and in heaven. Was I dead?

I let my hands travel over his body—over his neck, down his back, up under his jacket, along his ribs. I wished he wasn’t wearing the fucking thing. I wished there were no clothes between us at all. Wished we were skin on skin—hot, naked, sweating. I preferred to top, but I would let Mash fuck me out here under the stars.

He broke the kiss, lifted his head up, and trained unfocused eyes on mine. He was out of breath, we both were.

“Mash,” I started to say. The word was nothing more than a whisper. I didn’t know what I planned on saying. All I knewwas that I never wanted him to stop. I wanted all of his kisses. Forevermore.

But the next second, something large and heavy sounding landed in the pine trees directly to our left. A tawny owl hooted, jump-scaring both of us.

Mash laughed, moved off me.

I couldn’t think of anything to say, and he was either shell-shocked or struggling to articulate himself. The owl called out again.

“Oh, piss off,” Mash yelled, lobbing an acorn or a pebble somewhere in the direction of the noise. “Scared the shit out of me. If I wanted to crap my pants tonight, I’d’ve eaten chocolate.”

He leant back on his elbows, took a deep shaky breath, and looked at the sky. “You’re a good kisser, by the way. Guy is a loser.”

“Thanks,” I replied, shuffling backwards on the rocky surface so I was also staring up at the glittering velvety night. “You’re not, though. You’re actually shit at kissing.”

Mash laughed. From the corner of my peripherals, I saw him tilt his head towards me. “This isn’t going to make things weird between us, is it? Have I just fucked five years of friendship in the bin because I’m a horndog?”

“No. We’re bald sunflowers, remember?” I said.

“Good boys forever,” he whispered. “Hey, would it be gay if we held hands and watched the stars together?”

I smothered my laugh. “Yeah, maybe a little bit gay.”

“I thought so,” he said, but he slipped his hand under mine and curled his fingers around my fist regardless.

Full Moon Fever

Present Day

Mash

The wolves started arriving, and they kept on arriving. Zach, Kai, Cian, and I were tasked with checking them off the big master list, and ushering them to their new homes for the next two months. Zach and Kai were in charge of allocating rooms in Clem’s B&B. Great for them because The Full Moon was just onebuilding, whereas Cian and I were managing Howling Pines. The entire estate slash nature reserve. All eight hundred and fifty acres of it.

Luckily, most of those people were camping in tents or campervans or RVs, so it was simply a case of looking them up on Zach’s—more bureaucratic than it needed to be—guest list, finding their parking spot and electric hook-ups, and showing them where the shower blocks were.

“This doesn’t make any sense. Why is the Black Fang pack on here twice? And here, look, the Oakwood alpha isn’t anywhere near the rest of the pack. And who the fuck is this tent supposed to belong to? They’re about a twenty-minute walk from the toilets. Are they meant to shit in the woods?” Ci said, flipping through page after page of abstract diagrams, paddock blueprints, and text which could easily have been mistaken for orcish furniture-assembly instructions.

“Give it here.” I took the ream of paper from Ci’s hand and tossed it in the trash can, just as another RV pulled up on the drive. It was the Kennedy pack, or at least, some of the Kennedy pack.

“Mash, m’boy! Good to see you,” said Tim, the Kennedy’s alpha. “That your mate there?” He pointed to Cian, who in turn smiled and did the raised-eyebrow head-nod greeting.

“Yeah, that’s him,” I replied, genuine warmth expanding in my chest at the words. “Ain’t he cute?”

Cian rolled his eyes, but his tail began swishing.

“Aye, he sure is. Congratulations.”

“You know where you’re going?”

Tim saluted me. I slapped the van, and he pulled away.

“What the fuck?” Ci said. “If it’s that easy, why did we need the brochure?”

“These wolves have been coming here every year since before I was born. Since before Mam was born. I dunno, I guess Zach just thinks he needs to help Nana out any way he can.”

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