45 pages • 1 hour read
Lana FergusonThe Fake Mate
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Mackenzie”
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.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Noah”
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. Mackenzie sympathizes with him because she, too, contends with being discriminated against for her own designation as an omega; however, she does not tell him of this designation. When they discuss how their agreement will work, Mackenzie reveals that she can still smell Noah’s pheromones despite his “cheap” suppressants. Noah is dumbfounded, as he has paid for the highest-quality suppressants on the market. Together, they decide on their story: that they have been pursuing a secret relationship because Mackenzie has only worked at the hospital for a year, and being tied to the head of cardiology would make her hiring seem like favoritism. In the meantime, Noah will stop taking his suppressants and will scent her (mixing his scent with her own) so that potential suitors will avoid her. Mackenzie agrees to these conditions, with the added clause that their relationship be a romance-free business transaction.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Mackenzie”
After meeting with the board, Mackenzie goes to find her best friend Parker and tells him about her agreement with Noah. Parker is skeptical and believes that deceiving the board and lying to Moira are terrible ideas. He is concerned that Noah will make an unhealthy claim on Mackenzie, given that Noah and Mackenzie are what the world considers to be a fated pair: an alpha and an omega. Mackenzie brushes off his concerns.
She unexpectedly meets Noah at the hospital’s entrance at the end of her shift, and they arrange to meet later and become more familiar with one another. Before leaving, Noah awkwardly scents Mackenzie so that others will smell their combined scents and know the alleged nature of their relationship. Mackenzie becomes weak-kneed from the scenting, but she dismisses this experience as an “alpha thing.”
Chapter 4 Summary: “Noah”
Noah cannot sleep because he feels uncomfortable about scenting Mackenzie and thus becoming intimate with a person—something that he has actively avoided for years. He receives a call from his former mentor and friend, Paul Ackard, who asks him about the person who revealed his designation, but Noah dodges the question. Noah feels bad for suspecting his friend, but Paul is one of the few people who knew about his alpha designation. Later, he receives a text from Mackenzie that provides him with the address of a coffee shop for their meet-up, and he is surprised when Mackenzie asks about his mental well-being. When he meets her the next day, he feels nervous but cannot decide if he is uneasy about their deception or because he is reacting to meeting with Mackenzie. As they talk, she reveals how bad her previous dates have been. She also explains that she was raised by her grandparents when her mother died because her father couldn’t function after this loss. Noah and Mackenzie then ask a series of personal questions, such as whether their wolf-shifted fur is the same color as their respective hair. Noah tells her that he has not been using his pheromone suppressants for the last few days and is curious to see how their absence will affect him, given that he has been using them since he was a teen.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Mackenzie”
Rumors have spread throughout the hospital about Mackenzie and Noah’s relationship. Miffed that Mackenzie has kept her relationship a secret, her friend Priya asks invasive questions about their sexual compatibility. During their conversation, however, Makenzie quickly realizes that she and Noah never discussed important details about their fake relationship, such as how they became a couple. Priya is called away, but she insists that Mackenzie and Noah attend a coworker’s retirement party that weekend.
Mackenzie goes to find Noah, only to witness him in a tense conversation with Dennis, a fellow cardiologist. Dennis is overtly friendly in a way that leaves Mackenzie suspicious. When Dennis leaves, Noah confirms the bitter feeling between him and his coworker; Dennis believes that he—not Noah—should have received the department head title. Noah and Mackenzie exchange stories of dealing with the rumor mill, and Mackenzie invites Noah to their coworker’s retirement party. Despite knowing that they will face endless questions, Noah agrees to go with her. Before she leaves, Noah awkwardly asks to scent her again, which she allows. However, the process leaves her unnerved and conflicted because it oddly soothes an unacknowledged part of her, but Mackenzie dismisses the feeling by blaming it on her hormones.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Noah”
Noah is nervous about the outing, as he hasn’t been to a bar in years. On his way to pick up Mackenzie, he berates himself for asking to scent her when she hadn’t needed it. He blames the lack of suppressants. When she arrives, he is amazed by how beautiful she looks. At the bar, they are immediately greeted by Mackenzie’s friends—one of whom, Noah is surprised to see, is Paul. When pressed to explain how they met, Noah and Mackenzie cobble together a story of meeting for a consultation. During the conversation, Mackenzie’s friends gently prod Noah to reveal more about his reputation as the resident Boogeyman at the hospital, and the resulting banter convinces them that Noah and Mackenzie are legitimately a couple. Paul eventually corners Noah alone and pointedly remarks on the coincidental timing of his relationship with Mackenzie. Noah admits to their true plan, claiming that Mackenzie is a saint for helping him and that he won’t allow anything to jeopardize her career. With a knowing smile, Paul leaves just as Dennis arrives. Now tipsy, Mackenzie swiftly drags Noah to the dance floor to avoid Dennis. While they dance, she admits to liking his scent, and Noah admits that he and Mackenzie are friends. They have a good time for the rest of the night, but Dennis eventually finds them and needles Noah about turning up for the event. Mackenzie intervenes, claiming that Noah has an early shift. As they turn to leave, her friends comment on Dennis’s distasteful personality. As Noah drives Mackenzie home, they discuss the fact that he was not overwhelmed at the bar despite the lack of his suppressants. Instead, he could only smell Mackenzie. They both chalk it up to “an alpha thing” (96).
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
In this section of the novel, Ferguson alternates between Mackenzie’s and Noah’s perspectives to create a more well-rounded depiction of the unspoken dynamics that drive the plot forward. This structure allows her to expand on the typical romance tropes that the novel employs, providing access to the protagonists’ inner monologues and tracing the development of their feelings for one another. Thus, from the beginning of the narrative, the two characters’ private thoughts about their perceived incompatibility become a distinct source of irony, given the visceral nature of their mutual attraction. For example, Noah finds Mackenzie to be “young, opinionated, [and] a little too chatty for [his] tastes—not [his] first pick for a pretend mate” (16), while Mackenzie reflects on her first meeting with Noah and her negative opinion that he is nothing but “an ass.” Given that both characters have less-than-stellar opinions of one another, Ferguson uses the fake boyfriend plotline to initiate a “forced proximity” situation that compels both characters to overcome their initial aversion to one another.
Although the novel is influenced by the fantasy genre, the romance aspects of the plot take center stage, and both Noah and Mackenzie conform to their narrative roles in this context, especially given that Ferguson will ultimately deliver a “happily ever after” solution at the end of the narrative. However, before these patterns are upheld, Ferguson complicates the novel’s traditional roles by exploring more complex alpha-beta-omega dynamics in her world-building. The main premise of Noah’s predicament and his need for a fake mate is deeply tied to his designation as an alpha. As he explains to Mackenzie, “there are […] hindrances, for people like [him]. Ridiculous archaic notions that might have kept [him] from advancing to the position [he holds now]” (17) because he is “a little stronger, a little faster, a little […] more than the average shifter” (18). Inherent in this “archaic” perspective is the unspoken assumption that alphas like Noah are needlessly aggressive and violent—a misconception that Dennis will later try to weaponize in his campaign against Noah. Thus, this aspect of the plot highlights The Harmful Ignorance of Stereotypes that permeate society in the novel, and Ferguson also delivers a thinly veiled condemnation of real-life instances of discrimination. Noah himself stands as a challenge to the stereotypes of his world, for through his own efforts, he has become the very picture of restraint and has gone out of his way to contradict the common assumptions about his designation.
Ferguson also uses foreshadowing in this section of the novel to draw attention to the primary emotional conflict between the two protagonists. During the bar scene, when Paul and Noah discuss his fake relationship with Mackenzie, Paul cautions him to be careful and to avoid risking his career. While Noah takes this advice to heart, his response hints at the professional crisis that he will eventually face because of Dennis’s interference. When he states, “If nothing else […] I wouldn’t want to jeopardize Mackenzie’s career. I couldn’t live with myself if I dragged her down with me” (86), it is clear that their connection is quite genuine despite the pretense of their current relationship. At this stage of the novel, Noah’s feelings for Mackenzie only hint at the possibilities of love, but even as Ferguson uses this scene to signal that Noah’s fears will eventually be realized, she also illustrates Noah’s innate sense of accountability and self-sacrifice. Even prior to falling in love with Mackenzie, Noah is fully committed to protecting her from the potential fallout of their association. He is well aware that his decision to fake a relationship to maintain his position might cause issues for him if his subterfuge is unveiled, but for Mackenzie’s yet-to-be-established career, the consequences would be far more ruinous. Ferguson therefore reveals that Noah also has a softness and a caring side, and these aspects of his personality contrast with his cultivated reputation as the resident “Boogeyman of Denver General” (24). Rather than acting as a tyrant, he instead shows traits that are more akin to a protective alpha’s “destin[y] to lead a pack, to carry on a clan” (18).
