The Great North, Quebec, 1934. Joe Vega, the Beast, has been locked up in Linhart Prison for three years. The brutish guards harass him because of his size, but Joe remains cool. Until Christophe Dubois, the disowned son of an affluent politician, is led into Joe's cell. From the moment Joe sees him, he suspects the ginger-head is trouble. Christophe is bold, curious, and feisty, and Joe can't resist the temptation of climbing into the man's bunk for long. However, the beautiful spoiled Christophe is a furnace to which both guards and convicts want to warm their hands, and Joe must fight to keep Christophe safe. Linhart Prison may be a cruel place, but when the two men are released from its walls, they find an even tougher world out there. Is the flame burning between Joe and Chris enough to keep them together?

Linhart's Beautiful Beast

His fingers were numb from the cold, but Joe swung the ax again and again, finally splicing the log in two. At a distance, he heard a tree crash, but couldn’t be bothered to look up to see where it would land. This morning, their work group had been welcomed by a crowd of angry Natives who were here to protest Murphy’s plant. The men were holding up large signs, and the words on them seemed to be written in blood.


They hate us, Joe thought. This place was cursed―the forest, soil, the inmates―they were all cursed.


Chapter 46