Page 6 of The Good Boys Club

“’Sfine. I don’t need his approval. Not like I’m fucking you, is it?”

I almost choked on my beer. Luckily, I was saved by the buzzer. The pizza delivery guy, thank gods. I opened the door, accepted the pizza, tipped the driver.

“Speaking of fucking,” Mash said, the second I got back into our flat. I pointedly did not look at him. “I’m probably gonna be bringing a few girls back now and then. Is that gonna be a problem?”

“No, I guess not. It’s your flat too.” I tried to hide the sudden sinking sensation. He was straight. The most perfect man I’d ever laid eyes on was straight.

Of course he was straight.

“Neat.” Who said neat? Urgh.

“What about you?” he asked.

“What about me?”

“You bringing girls back or . . .”

“Oh, right. No, probably not. I’m gay.”

Mash was silent for a few seconds. “Sweet. At least we’ll never be arguing over the same chick.”

“I honestly can’t imagine that’s a fight I’d ever win.”

He side-eyed me, a smile fattening his cheeks, his dimples popping. Gods, how was anyone supposed to resist that face?

Straight.

“I grew up around women. My alpha is a woman—my nana, actually—and most of the pack betas are women too, including my mam. Plus, I have three sisters. I just get women, and I’m like really good with them.”

“Your grandmother is your alpha?” I asked, immediately regretting how awkward and weird I sounded. I knew very little about werewolf culture—about packs, and alphas, and betas, and their customs and traditions. I only knew that those customs and traditions were highly regarded, often strictly observed, and not a place for outsiders—non-werefolk—to poke their noses in. I hoped he wasn’t offended, but at the same time, I needed to binge this man.

“Yep, it used to be my dad, but he died when I was three. Accident. Farm machinery. I don’t remember him, but people tell me I look like him. The alpha role automatically went back to my nana.”

“Not your mum? Or any aunts or uncles?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s fucking weird. The lines of succession don’t follow birth order or rank or anything like they do with humans. It feels so random at times. The call of the alpha picks whoever it wants to be next, and that’s it. Nobody gets any say. Actually, I’m—”

He cut himself off before he could finish whatever it was he’d planned on saying. I couldn’t think of anything to add to the conversation, so I nodded.

“So . . . you can shift whenever you want?” Mash said, probably to fill the lull. “That must be pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I guess. I never really thought about it before. I don’t shift that often, though.” These days only when I was completely alone, because in wolf form I could suck myself off. No other reason. Hadn’t shifted in a public space for a couple of years. “You can only shift on the full moon?”

Mash nodded. “Literally one night a month. And I can never seem to remember much, but I get massive.”

“You’re huge anyway,” I said, and I found myself blushing. Oh, come on, Ci.

“How big do you get? Shift for me now.”

I paused, caught off guard for a second. “Then I’d have to get naked.”

He shrugged. I guessed Mash wasn’t the type to have ever had insecurities. I bet he didn’t even know the definition of the word. The guy probably came out of the womb six feet tall with muscles on muscles.

“I can shift part way, though. Watch,” I said. I concentrated hard and shifted just enough to let my ears transform like a were’s, and for my fluffy tail to appear. I wiggled it free from the seat of my jeans.

“Hey, that’s pretty cool.” Mash sat upright on the couch, his pizza box shunted dangerously close to the edge of his knees. “You look were. And your fur is grey. I thought it’d be black like your hair.”

I looked at the fur on my tail—dark grey, like gunmetal grey. I shifted back to my human form.

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