The Good Boys Club (Mythical Mishaps #2)

16. Full Moon Fever

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 one building, 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.”

Cian hummed to himself, and I knew he was thinking about my pack dynamics. But he said nothing. He never did. He’d already learned by now I didn’t like talking about it.

“Oh, also, before I forget,” I said. I leaned in close even though we were the only two people standing on the drive. “There’s gonna be a lot of folk about all the time for the next ten weeks, like, they’re gonna be everywhere. I need us to look like a real couple all the time in case anyone is watching. My nana has a lot of moles—the spy kind, not the super-big freckle kind. There are a lot of wolves here that wouldn’t hesitate to report back to her if they didn’t think we were totally right for each other. So, whilst we’re here, anywhere other than my room or the bathroom, I need you to pretend to be in love with me, okay?”

Cian said nothing. His body went stiff.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m asking so much of you—”

“No, it’s fine,” he said, finally finding his voice. “How should we do that?”

“I dunno, really. I’ve never been in a relationship, but I guess we could touch each other a lot?” I suggested.

“Like this?” Cian reached his hand up and as gentle as a feather, stroked along my jaw.

My body’s natural instinct was to close my eyes and lean into the caress. I fought it, but a moment later, I regretted my decision. Why was I trying to fight something I’d specifically asked him to do?

“Yeah, like that.” My voice was breathy. “Or like this.” I slapped his ass.

Cian squealed. “Ow!” he said, but he was laughing, and both of our tails were wagging. Damn, I loved having the visual indicator of his mood. Maybe I could persuade him to keep it out all the time.

“Also wolves—all wolves but especially mated pairs—nuzzle,” I said.

“Nuzzle?”

“Mmm hmm, like this.” I held him either side of his shoulders and crouched down a little, slotting my face into the gap between his neck and shoulder. Cian sucked in a breath and I ran the tip of my nose up the column of his throat.

Holy fuck, he really did smell amazing. Suddenly, nuzzling made so much more sense to me. I could become so addicted to this. Could so easily make nuzzling Ci my entire personality.

I pulled away.

Cian’s face was pink, his mouth hung open, his tail had stopped wagging. “Um . . .” He swallowed. “Okay.”

“Also . . . we should kiss.” I tried to sound guilty, rueful, but it was too difficult. Oh, gods, he was going to assume this had been my plan all along. “Not now, but sometimes, like when we know people are looking.”

“Okay,” he said again. I couldn’t read his emotion.

“So, you should just kiss me whenever you think people might see. You don’t have to ask my permission, just do it.”

He nodded.

“And . . . do I have your permission to do the same . . . to you?”

“Yes,” he said. He didn’t even debate it. Or roll his eyes. Or make a joke. He agreed, just like that.

Cian’s gaze darted to my lips and back to my eyes . . . and then once again to my lips, where they stayed.

What was happening right now?

My heart beat so quickly and heavily in my chest I was sure he’d hear it. My palms were sweating, my mouth dry.

I wet my lips. Cian watched the movement.

Okay, so maybe we should practice a little? Here on the drive before everyone arrived and the real show began . . .

“Oi! Get a room, boys!” someone yelled from behind me. I spun round on the spot to find Dee-Dee hanging out the driver’s side window of a car I did not hear approach. “Or point us to ours.”

“Dee!” I said, holding my arms out for a hug.

She climbed out of her car—which I decided must run on mouse farts or something—and without hesitation, wrapped her arms around me.

Damn, she got hotter. More beautiful. She’d always been gorgeous, but I didn’t know, something had happened in the few years since I last saw her. She seemed happier maybe. Her wolfish amber eyes sparkled more.

Dee-Dee was as tall as Ci, with curves every-damn-where. She had choppy, shoulder-length ginger hair with a stripe of silver at the front like a sexy orange badger.

She pulled away from the hug. “Mash, oh, I can’t tell you how happy I am for you.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “He smells incredible on you.” Then she started laughing. Gently at first, and gradually more unhinged until she was wiping tears from her eyes.

I looked at Cian, who shrugged, but as Riley stepped out of the passenger side of the car also laughing, we found ourselves getting swept up into it.

“Gods, I was so fucking worried they were going to arrange our mating,” she said. “I almost didn’t come.”

Oh, she was relieved. She obviously wanted a pairing between us just as much as I did.

“I’m forty-six years old. I don’t need to be shipped off to beta another pack. I’ve got a multinational business to run!”

Speaking of business. “Dee-Dee, Riley, let me introduce you to my mate, Cian Barker.”

Cian and I had discussed beforehand about how we would approach his job application. My plan was to straight up tell Dee he wanted the position, but Cian figured it would be best to get to know her first, win her over, then casually mention how super fucking keen he was.

“Hi, Dylan, it’s great to meet you,” Ci said, his tail plastered to his thigh. Fuck, he was cute when he was nervous.

“Dylan, aye? Someone’s been looking me up on the internet,” she said, shaking Ci’s outstretched hand. His cheeks turned pink. “Call me Dee-Dee. Nobody outside of work calls me Dylan. So, you’re the infamous wolf who’s managed to tame Mash? I’ve known about you for a week, and already you’re something of a legend.”

Cian laughed nervously.

“This is Riley,” Dee said. “Mash, you’ve met before. She’s my right-hand woman at Byte Tech.”

“Yeah, we’ve met.” I pulled Riley into a hug, but a less warm one than I gave Dee. “You were like, I dunno, twenty when we met?”

Riley pulled away, blushing. “Yeah, I think so.”

Beside me, Cian stiffened. He held out his hand again. “Nice to meet you, Riley.”

“You too,” she said, her blush creeping further up her cheeks, spreading to the very tips of her pinna.

“Right, shall we show you to your room?” I said, before things became a little too awkward.

“Certainly. Where has Alpha Cassidy situated us this time? Let me guess, right next to your bedroom.”

I winked at her. “You got it. Pretty sure Nana allocated all the rooms before she found out about Cian, and was still hoping for . . .” I motioned a hand between us. “You know.”

She nodded. She knew. We’d had years of it. Since the first full moon after my twenty-fifth birthday, which I wasn’t home for. Not that it ever stopped them from trying. But I’d made it to the grand old age of thirty-four without settling down, and Dee was forty-six. Could they not understand we weren’t the sort of people who paired off?

We arrived at the end of the corridor that housed my room and the room that used to belong to my sisters.

“Here you are,” I said, opening the door and placing Dee’s bags at the foot of the bed.

She dropped another bag next to the first. “The bedroom across the hall is yours, no?”

“Yep,” I said.

Cian followed us in and placed Riley’s bags down.

Riley walked in and sniffed the freshly cut roses in the vase on the dresser. She smiled at Dee, then at Cian and me. “Thank you.”

“You boys don’t need to worry about making too much noise, okay?” Dee said.

Cian squeaked, his eyes bulging.

“I understand what it’s like to be newly pre-mated.” Dee’s eyes went wide, and she stumbled over words in her haste to correct herself. “Uh, you know, from what I’ve seen with other couples. Especially the ones at work who’ve just returned from their honeymoons.”

“Well, that’s good,” I said after a few seconds of everybody staring awkwardly at each other. “Because Ci’s a noisy climaxer.”

“Holy fuck, Mash!” Cian said.

Both women snorted and turned their faces away.

“Not as loud as me, though,” I said, and their snorts morphed into full laughter.

“I cannot fucking take you anywhere.” Cian grabbed my arm around my bicep. “Excuse us,” he said to the women, and he pulled me into my bedroom, slamming the door behind us.

“That went well,” I said, sitting on the end of the bed.

“Gods, Mash, that was so fucking embarrassing. I’m trying to get a fucking job with this woman, not paint a vivid picture of my imaginary sex life.” Cian paced the rug. “Also, what the hell was that? Noisy climaxer?!”

“Well, you are.” I folded my arms behind my head and lay back on the mattress.

“What the actual fuck? I am not. And like, when have you heard me come?”

“All the time, mate. I lived with you for . . .” I added up the years Cian and I were roommates. “Nine years. I’ve heard you come a lot.”

“Oh my gods.” He scraped his hands down his face, pushing his glasses askew. Resumed his pacing. “Oh my gods.”

“I don’t know what you’re flapping about. You hear me come all the time.”

“This isn’t happening,” he whimpered, still cradling his face, then falling onto the mattress in a position that looked like he was praying.

All this talk about coming was making my knots feel a little heavy.

He lifted his head and whispered, “Are they going to be suspicious if they don’t hear sex noises?”

I thought about it. Yeah, probably. That was the answer, though I doubted Dee-Dee would grass on us to Nana. She’d been too relieved earlier to scent Cian on me.

“It’s fine, I’ll just wank extra loud,” I offered. Cian pretended to weep. “You can put your headphones on or something.”

He puffed out a breath. Resigned. “Fine, whatever.”

“Are there any cars waiting for us?” I said.

Cian crawled up the bed and peered through the curtains. “No, not yet.”

I had an idea. “Maybe before we go back out there, we should practice kissing.”

His hand slipped off the window ledge. “What?”

“Like, okay, I wanna make sure if I randomly kiss you in front of every pack in Lykos, that you’re not going to shit yourself . . . that you’ll just be natural about it.”

“I’ll be cool, I promise. We don’t need to practice. Besides, I hear a car coming.”

I sighed.

I shouldn’t have been disappointed by that.