The Fake Mate

Mackenzie Carter is an ER doctor, a year out of residency, and a wolf shifter whose dating life has hit bottom. Her recent dates include a model train expert, several mansplainers and a man fixated on her tail.

Her grandmother keeps pressing her to find the perfect mate, and under that pressure Mackenzie claims she is already seeing someone. The name she blurts out belongs to Noah Taylor, the grumpy cardiologist known around Denver General as the big bad wolf.

Noah has spent his whole life hiding that he is an unmated alpha, since stigma around such wolves has people wondering whether they still howl at the moon. An anonymous tip now threatens to expose him. He can admit the truth to the hospital board and risk his career, or he can produce a mate.

Mackenzie's request that he play her boyfriend arrives the very day he is summoned to meet the board. The deal is simple on paper. She gets her grandmother off her back, and he gets time to show he can do his job without a partner. Both of them call it a business transaction.

Then the pretense turns into a friends-with-benefits arrangement, and the lines between acting and feeling begin to blur. This is a paranormal romantic comedy with a fake-relationship setup and a steamy heat level. It pairs a chatty, overly friendly heroine with a guarded, grouchy hero, and the tone stays light and funny.