After Mackenzie Carter’s grandmother, Moira, sets her up on multiple bad dates, Mackenzie lies to Moira during a phone call and claims that she is seeing someone: a shifter like herself. As Moira demands to know the man’s identity, Noah Taylor, the notorious head of cardiology at the hospital where Mackenzie works, walks in. Although Mackenzie and Noah have never gotten along, she impulsively claims that he is the one she is now dating. She then quickly ends the call and musters the courage to explain her predicament, asking him to be her fake boyfriend. She is surprised to find Noah attentive despite his icy demeanor. He proposes a mutually beneficial agreement: He will play the part of her fake boyfriend if she will play the part of his fake mate.

Noah is hesitant to enter this agreement with Mackenzie because he does not know her well, but he is desperate for a solution to his own predicament. Because someone informed the hospital board that he is an alpha, his career is now in jeopardy. (An alpha is a rare shifter designation that is often stereotyped for excessive aggression.) Although Mackenzie is hesitant, he explains that without the guise of a mate to “mollify” his alpha tendencies, the board might fire him for failing to disclose his designation.