Burrowing Hearts Series

Tonight I meet my mate. I don’t know anything about him, including his name. According to fox shifter tradition, my parents chose him for me. For the next month we’ll be living together in a remote cabin. That’s how fox shifters form a bond. We burrow with our intended for a full month of winter. My mothers say my new mate is kind, and he won’t mind that I don’t look like other omegas. But I’m nervous. What if he’s disappointed? Or even worse, what if he’s someone I could never bring myself to love?

This movie was supposed to be my big break. There’s an enormous budget, the director is an Oscar winner, and the script is beautiful. But they want to film it in February. That’s complicated for an arctic fox shifter like me. We have a biological need for prolonged physical contact during burrowing season. I normally spend February cuddling with my family, not filming a movie in the middle of the woods. The studio said they’d find a professional cuddler for me. That seemed a little awkward, but I agreed to it. I figured they’d hire a woman or another male omega. But no.

I’m standing in an empty hall full of closed doors. Behind each one is an alpha I could bond with. I’ve never met any of them before. I don’t know their names. All I know is that they’re like me: a fox shifter without a family.