Title: Fugitive
Series: The Steele Pack, Book Two
Author: GiGi DeGraham
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 10/24/2023
Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 92500
Genre: Paranormal, contemporary, paranormal, magic/magic users, romance, gay, shifters, genderqueer/genderfluid, asexual, interracial, action/adventure, dark, suspense, tribal politics/spiritual beliefs, off-grid living/isolation, subsistence/hunting, soulmates, rivals to lovers, second chance, graphic violence/tribal warfare, mysterious wolves, soulmates, cross-dressing
Add to Goodreads
Description
Ryan is stubborn, he always has been. Patience has never been Thomas’s best trait. It’s been nine lonely years. Ryan thought Thomas was dead. Some secrets can’t be told. There are rules and laws that can’t be broken and often unreasonable Gods enforcing them. It’s going to be an uphill climb to fight for Ryan’s forgiveness. All Thomas wants is to spend the rest of his life with his soulmate (even if he is a fugitive), for them to have the picture-perfect life they always dreamed of together. They’ve finally got their chance to have it all, but…
The Bellum Pack is coming, and that can only mean one thing.
Thomas doesn’t have time to plan a war, win back his soulmate, and worry about his best friend, Penn, and whatever he’s got going on with the worst Pillar of all. How does the sweetest guy fall for their most feared God?
Thomas has to figure out how to keep Ryan safe and protect his entire pack from the encroaching war-hungry Wolves. As if that weren’t enough, having Tristan Steele, a human, as his Alpha might be what pushes Thomas over the edge, not to mention keeping Penn’s heart from getting broken. And somehow, he has to manage it all without burning down their world.
Fugitive
GiGi DeGraham © 2023
All Rights Reserved
Thomas sat in the woods alone in his Wolf form and thought back to that day with his father nine long years ago. So much time had passed. So much had happened since the accident. Everything had changed. He had changed. Thomas wasn’t sure if Ryan would even recognize him, remember him, or want anything to do with him. They were both twenty-seven now. But Thomas’s heart still ached and yearned for the only boy he had ever loved.
Man.
He is a man now, Thomas reminded himself.
Thomas didn’t know how Ryan had done it, but somehow, he’d escaped from prison. The timing had been perfect; it had been on one of the long annual journeys Thomas took each year to Ryan’s prison to check on him. To try to just sense him inside those walls, to know he was still breathing, to hear his heartbeat from outside those fences, gates, and concrete. He’d seen him a few times throughout the years when Ryan was released to the yard, but nothing more than a few sightings.
Considered dead, Thomas was only allowed to be in his Wolf form outside their pack lands. He’d followed that disgusting vehicle that transported his mate in that ungodly box. Thomas had trailed along when Ryan had escaped and run from it, trying to guide and encourage him without being seen. That had been harder than he’d anticipated, seeing Ryan up close and then having to leave him to return to his time-warped pack family and all their laws, back to their way of life.
Thomas couldn’t believe how much time had passed, how much he had changed. Thanks to his father saving his life and Grace and the others accepting him and teaching him their ways, Thomas finally felt normal, healthy, and loved by a family. And what a family it was. Thomas shook his head at its wild cross between old Puritans, with a dash of Dutch—even Amish-like—and some old-school USSR thrown in the mix.
Simple but complex, his people believed in hard work, pack law, and their makers. They were the most nonmaterialistic people Thomas had ever known. With its group mentality, everyone shared everything. They all looked out for and helped one another. Family, hunting, and protecting their ancient way of life were the priority.
It was all about the pack.
How in the hell am I ever going to explain all this to him? Thomas asked.
Truth, Wolf responded.
And as they sat there, within their shared self, they thought of their mate again. Ryan, who was currently on the run. He’d been spotted recently in a city only a few hours away. Ryan was making pretty fast time and covering quite a bit of distance. Thomas wondered where Ryan was heading, but something inside him, his Wolf, whispered that Ryan was coming to him—to them. Ryan just didn’t know it yet.
It had been a nearly two-year fight with Thomas’s father, their Alpha, and the pack council. They finally gave approval for Ryan to be allowed into the pack should he choose it. It had taken a lot of praying to the Pillars—their Gods—who Thomas, like his father, often didn’t understand or agree with. Unfortunately, Ryan had been in prison, serving out a hefty sentence. This was why the council had finally agreed, likely thinking the possibility would never come to fruition since Ryan would be an old man by the time he was released.
But Ryan had gone and done the impossible.
He had escaped at just twenty-seven years old. And if Thomas could find him and convince him to turn Wolf with Thomas as his mate, Ryan would be protected by the pack, under the protection of their four Pillars, and never face going back to prison. This was their—Thomas and Wolf’s—current shared plan as they sat in the woods and waited.
While Thomas was confident about his feelings for Ryan, he wasn’t as optimistic about Ryan’s feelings towards him. As far as Ryan knew, Thomas was dead and had been for the past nine years. In his heart, Thomas knew that would have deeply hurt Ryan. Getting him to forgive Thomas for not finding a way to let him know he hadn’t died would take more than mere pleading for forgiveness. Not to mention Ryan was extraordinarily stubborn. Or that Thomas had ended up doing the one thing he swore to never do to Ryan—leave him like everyone else had.
He’s going to be so pissed, Thomas said with the heavy burden of guilt.
Wolf grunted his agreement.
Thomas smiled over just how well he knew Ryan. His Wolf did not. Ryan had always been slow to embrace anything new he didn’t understand. He’d been a broody boy with a quiet disposition and murderous stare. He was, of course, secretly sweet—to Thomas. But no, Ryan’s unyielding personality would make forgiveness a nearly impossible feat. He didn’t just hold on to a grudge; he embraced that sucker and death-gripped it for dear life. Thomas had seen it so many times before but rarely directed at him. And those times, Thomas had wormed and manipulated his way out of the doghouse. Methods that were not going to work this time. Yes, Thomas would have his work cut out for him—and he deserved it.
You don’t know him, Thomas reminded his Wolf. You think you do because you feel my thoughts and memories. I know the beforetime that you don’t remember, but… Thomas thought about all the voices from his childhood, about a boy with a trapped half Wolf inside him. Wolf remembered little of that time before his own true birth.
What if you don’t even like him? Thomas worried.
Will, Wolf replied.
We need a plan, Thomas muttered.
They growled at themselves now for not having some sort of plan. It had been nearly a decade, and here they sat alone in the woods, trying to figure something out. Ryan was the thinker and planner; Thomas was the joker and doer. Constantly reacting without thinking things through. Thomas believed he’d gotten better at this since turning Wolf, but Thomas was still Thomas. He was just a little different now.
Since the Ryan sighting after his escape, Thomas had been patrolling the borders of all of their pack lands, the Forestry lands, and the Wildlife Conservation lands. Thousands of acres, and finding Ryan would be like a needle in a haystack. But something inside Thomas kept telling him Ryan would head north. North to the most extensive uninhabited woodlands in the country. Ryan would think he could disappear into the forest and evade capture by living in the wild.
Thomas knew this because they had discussed it many, many times, read books related to it, and it had all but become their youthful dream or fantasy, really. Two incarcerated boys with Robinson Crusoe dreams. They never truly believed Ryan would get out before he was in his sixties. Thomas couldn’t help but think and hope they had a real chance now.
Had he not been bitten and turned Wolf by his father, Thomas would have committed another crime just to go back to prison to be with Ryan. But as he was now, Wolf could not survive on the inside. He would have died in under a year. Wolves had to shift, and they had to eat meat. They had to be around their own kind, with their mate, or eventually go mad. They’d go feral.
Thomas lifted his nose, sniffing the air, and smelled another Wolf, Penn, not far from his location but heading north for his usual assignment. As they were both scouts, Penn and he had the same patrol rotation and would usually eat dinner together once their shift ended. Thomas ran the southern lands. His ear twitched at the slow metallic squealing sound that echoed and bounced off the mountains several miles away to the east.
Thomas ran through all of the options: the metal gate to the forestry’s fire road, the metal door to the forestry ranger tower, the gate at the old Steele place, and the two tree-line hunting platforms. The only metal for miles. He listened, turning his head. Thomas could just make out the sound of an engine and then the metal squealing again. Like a gate that hadn’t been opened for a very long time.
Thomas stood on paws and headed east. It had to be the fire road or the Steele place, but the fire road gate didn’t make that sound. Rangers kept their equipment, even their gates, in top working order. No…it had to be the gate to the old Steele place, which meant someone was going to the cabin. Thomas picked up his pace. No one ever belonged there who wasn’t a Steele. It was in their treaty with the Steele elder, the only human Thomas’s council and pack had ever trusted.
But Mr. Steele had died years ago. Thomas’s father had told him the cabin and land had been all but forgotten for years. The son, then; it had to be the Steele son. Malcolm had said the son would honor the treaty as the father had done. But the Wolves didn’t know the son as they had his father. This could mean trouble. Thomas knew he wouldn’t have been the only one to have heard it.
Purchase
NineStar Press | Books2Read
Amazon
GiGi DeGraham lives, plays, and learns in New Orleans. She is a proud southerner and enjoys fixing up old houses and writing. Most of her story and character ideas develop while sanding and painting. She loves to roller skate and has a favorite author-named cat called Irving, after Washington Irving. You’ll always find her with an audiobook in her ear and listening to everything narrated by Kirt Graves.
GiGi prefers the outdoors when the weather permits, going on rock and fossil hunts or visiting local rock shops. Otherwise, she’s clacking away at her keyboard until the wee hours. GiGi firmly believes downtime should be spent on a porch swing. GiGi is a life-long supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
One lucky winner will receive a $50.00 NineStar Press Gift Code!
