The Mating Game

Tess Covington has always believed she is an ordinary human. A visit to a Denver emergency room proves otherwise: she is an omega wolf shifter whose wolf only now emerges. The timing is bad. Her family's money is collapsing, and a TV contract depends on her finishing a renovation job.

Her wolf has its own demands. It pushes her toward a first heat and warns her to keep well away from alpha shifters. Tess cannot afford to slow down, so she takes the work anyway.

The job is at a lodge run by Hunter Barrett, an alpha wolf who is struggling to keep the business afloat. He lives by routine and has steered clear of omegas ever since one broke his heart. Tess smells like exactly the kind of trouble he avoids, yet his finances leave him no one else to turn to, so he lets her stay.

This is a standalone paranormal romance with an enemy-adjacent setup of forced proximity, shifter instincts and an attraction that grows harder to resist. Both leads try to keep things professional. Both also know the arrangement ends when the renovation does, which makes the pull between them a problem with a deadline.