Alpha Who Kept the Porch Light On

She never asked him why.Four years ago, Tess Hollis waited in a gravel lot for the one word that would have made her stay. Rhett Marlowe, the newly minted alpha of the Kettle Ridge pack, gave her a different word instead, and she drove to Portland with a suitcase and a jar of sourdough starter.Now her aunt has broken a hip, the bakery in Alder Hollow needs a pair of hands until New Year's, and Tess has nine weeks to get through without being drawn back into the pull of woodsmoke, wet pine, and a brass lantern still burning above a lodge door on the hill. Rhett has spent four years being patient. He has kept the roof up, the pack fed, and the light on. He has not learned how to say what he wants.In a small pack town where the first snow means forty pies and a supper for the whole valley, an old sponsorship custom is gone, a three-question card belongs to the omega who writes it, and no scent gets to decide for anyone. When her heat week arrives, Tess writes every rule herself. Rhett has only one job: honor every word of it, including the two that mean stop.But a job offer is waiting in her inbox, a deadline is counting down, and the oldest mistake between them is one clean, kind sentence away from happening all over again.Inside this novella:- Second chance romance with a grumpy-gentle alpha who says very little and means all of it - Cozy small-town wolf pack, bakery mornings, a three-legged retriever, and a town that has opinions about everything - Slow burn that turns steamy, with explicit, consent-forward scenes and a heat week the heroine controls - Trust as the heart of the pack bond: a door that only closes when both people want it shut - Dual point of view, heartfelt and funny, with a warm happily ever afterFor readers 18 and up who like their omegaverse warm, their heroines stubborn, and their love stories built on choice.