The Runner

The Empire hunts people for sport. Cody Perrin has spent ten years ruining the game.

Abducted from Earth at fifteen, Cody was supposed to be easy prey. Instead, he's become a fugitive Imperial security can catch but can't keep. With Max, his loyal AI companion, he survives on stolen starships, reckless ingenuity, and far too little sleep.

Then Cody steals a ship from a thousand years in the future. For once, he might have the means to disappear.

Except he can't ignore people who need help.

Rescuing Corassà, a young Imperial soldier desperate for a different life, gives Cody an unlikely ally—and a man he could fall for. A plea from the survivors of a devastated world gives their new crew a mission: get supplies through an Imperial blockade before an entire people starve.

But helping them could expose the one secret Cody has protected for a decade: Earth's location.

Now he has a crew he won't abandon, a love he never expected, and a homeworld that must stay hidden. Another escape won't save them all.

A queer space-opera adventure with found family and an M/M love story.