Who leaves their girlfriend in the woods after a fight? My now ex-boyfriend, that’s who. One fight—okay, a big fight—because I found out he was cheating on me while we were camping, and poof! He left me in the woods. So, I start walking to town, only I end up at the river, where I meet Axel. This guy is huge. With a storm rolling in, I don’t have much choice but to trust him and take shelter in his cabin, since I’ve been walking for hours away from town. Several days of rain wash out the road and it looks like I’m stuck here with my giant.

My alpha ordered me to keep away from humans. My wolf is highly unstable. Nearly feral. I can’t be trusted around civilians. Certainly not with the lovely kindergarten teacher whose scent drives me wild. But she needs a fake boyfriend for a weekend wedding trip. A big guy to intimidate her ex. How can I refuse? I won’t be directly disobeying an order, because it won’t be a real date. It will be a nice clean mission. We’ll have separate rooms. I’ll keep my wolf on a tight leash. And no matter how much I want to, I will not mark and claim the sweet human as mine.

Look, I've had it bad for the girl with all the curves next door forever. She turned me down in high school and since I'm not a total douchecanoe, I lusted after her all by myself in my shower, and we stayed just friends for years. Now she's the adorkable librarian next door, and I'm the star quarterback of the best pro football team in the league. So when she asks me to be her fake date to her all-girls school reunion, I am totally down to show her off to the mean girls who bullied her back then so they can see just how incredible she is.

I had one thing on my mind and that was never going to change: The game. The only goal I had was beating the records set by my family. I didn’t have time for anything else. Until she walked in the room. The earth shifted, just like the stories said it would. I said it wouldn’t happen—not to me. I didn’t have the time, but now she was the only thing on my mind. I knew it was her. Now I had to convince her.

By thirty, you’re supposed to have a home, a dog, a boyfriend or at least a string of lovers in the past. Instead, I’m a twenty-eight-year-old virgin living with my parents to save money. My job managing an apartment complex is the one thing I’m proud of–and that’s not just because a complete hottie just walked in the door. Tyler Griffen is here working on a construction project for nine months, which means we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. Which I don’t mind one bit if it means getting more face time with those tattooed, muscled arms and his heart melting smile.