An alien weapon. A human mistake. An impossible bond.

Kaden’s life is stretched thin between journalism, fantasy novels, stand-up comedy and ghostwriting. And an endless series of distractions while his relationship crumbles around him. Something has to change. He has to change. Then, on an assignment at his boyfriend’s biotech lab, Kaden sees something that should be impossible. A small blue blob in a tank trying to escape its pursuers.

The blue blob is a Protector: a living armour system engineered to bond with his other in moments of danger. But he’s chosen to betray his own kind rather than help destroy an innocent world. Now he’s stranded on Earth—wounded, hunted, and unable to fully communicate.

Kaden’s been warned not to touch anything. But he does far more than that. He smuggles the blob out of the lab, names him Joe and sparks a dangerous connection. Joe was never meant to bond with someone like Kaden, but as uncertainty around them grows, including threats tied to the powerful man Kaden ghostwrites for, Kaden becomes the one person Joe cannot abandon.

What begins as a moment of madness becomes friendship, deepens to devotion, and ignites into a love that they might not survive. The universe is stranger, and far more alive, than humanity ever imagined.