The Mating Game - Softcover

Ferguson, Lana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 059395369X ISBN 13: 9780593953693

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

Two wolf shifters reluctant to love discover there’s no fighting the call of the wild in this steamy romance by USA Today bestselling author Lana Ferguson.

Contractor Tess Covington has spent her entire life as a regular non-shifter human, so after she lands in the Denver ER with flu-like symptoms, it comes as a complete shock to be told that, no, she’s not sick—she’s actually a late-presenting omega wolf shifter. With her family in dire financial straits and a contract for her own television show on the line, she can’t afford not to complete the renovation job she came for. And given that her newly emerged wolf is in danger of going into heat, she’ll just have to do her best to follow the doctor’s advice to keep away from alpha shifters.

Alpha wolf Hunter Barrett has spent most of his adult life living by a routine, and a big part of that involves staying clear of omegas after having one stomp on his heart. So when the tiny contractor shows up at his place smelling like the one thing he’s determined to avoid, he thinks it must be some sort of cosmic joke. But with his lodge on the verge of failing and this sweet-smelling omega his only hope to turn things around . . . he’s left with few other options than to grin and bear it.

Set on avoiding each other as much as possible, they find things unexpectedly starting to heat up between them enough to thaw even the frostiest of hearts. Though even with the pair going head over paws for each other, there’s no changing that their fling has an expiration date. The more time they spend together, the more they realize they’re playing a dangerous game—one where the only thing on the line is their hearts.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lana Ferguson

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

Tess

"Well, the good news is . . . you're not dying."

I gape at the pretty, smiling ER physician-Dr. Carter, she said her name was-who is regarding me carefully, having looked up at me from her clipboard, which I assume has the results of all the blood tests we did earlier.

"Do you know what's wrong with me?" I wring my hands together. "Is it some sort of weird twenty-four-hour bug?"

This seems unlikely to me, given the severity of the symptoms I've been experiencing the last several hours, but I suppose it's still a possibility.

Dr. Carter glances down at her clipboard again, flipping a page and reading something there. "I wanted to ask a few follow-up questions if that's okay?"

"Sure," I answer tightly, wishing she would just give me some clue as to what's wrong with me. "That's fine."

"Your parents . . . You listed them both as betas?"

I nod. "That's right."

"And your siblings?"

"Also betas. We all are."

She presses her lips together briefly. "Do you have any family history of crossbreeding with shifters?"

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry." She gives me another polite smile. "It's relevant."

I think back, trying to mentally tick through my family tree for as far back as I can recall. "I think . . ." I frown, trying to remember. "I think my great-grandmother was a shifter, actually. I never met her though. She died before I was born."

"Hmm."

I watch as she scans through her notes again, every passing second making my anxiety climb higher. Twenty-four hours ago, I was perfectly healthy and packing for my trip to Denver, excited about a new job. Travel is nothing new to me; my contracting business, Rustic Renovations, takes me all over the country, but this is the first time I've had to get off a plane and take an Uber straight to the nearest emergency room.

It started with cramps-terrible, terrible cramps-followed by a fever, cold sweats, and lots of nausea, and by the time the plane landed, it was clear all the other people on my flight were worried I was carrying some sort of plague, given my awful appearance. Even now I can feel my chestnut bangs clinging to my forehead with sweat, and it's only the IV in my arm feeding me occasional doses of high-powered nausea meds that's keeping me from hurling all over the speckled white tile of the little room I'm in.

"Well," Dr. Carter starts carefully. "Your blood tests yielded an abnormal spike in your hormone levels. Your progesterone, estrogen, and cortisol levels are all three times the amounts they should be. Your endocrine system is having a hard time processing the influx. That's what's causing all the unfortunate symptoms you're experiencing."

"I don't understand. Why would my hormones be out of whack all of a sudden? Is it like menopause? I'm only twenty-eight!"

"Nothing like that. It's . . . Well." She sighs, pulling the clipboard to her stomach and holding it against her white coat as she offers me a sympathetic look. "This might come as a shock, Ms. Covington, but . . ."

I lean in, my ass scooting to the edge of the hospital bed, which has me instinctively reach behind to make sure my panties aren't flashing anyone from the gap in the back of my paper gown. "What? What is it?"

"What you're experiencing isn't entirely out of the ordinary. In fact, it's something most shifters experience at the end of puberty."

I blink. "But . . . I'm a beta. Betas can't shift."

"Yes, well. It's not entirely unheard-of for a recessive gene to present itself later in life."

"That's . . ." I run my fingers through my hair, no doubt making my bangs stick straight up, but I can't focus on that right now. "That's impossible."

"Not impossible, I'm afraid," Dr. Carter says gently. "Just unlikely."

I try to process what she's saying, but it sounds faraway, like she's speaking to someone else. There's no way I could

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 059395369X
• ISBN 13: 9780593953693
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 401
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Penguin Random House LLC; penguinrandomhouse@penguinrandomhouse.com; ; 1745 Broadway; New York; 10019; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland