Title: Lost in Dnara

Series: Surviving Vihaan, Book Three

Author: Elaine White

Publisher: NineStar Press

Release Date: 02/10/2026

Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 496

Genre: Paranormal Fantasy, MM romance, fantasy, fated mates, vampires, shifters, scientists, medical personnel, hurt-comfort, found family

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Description

Grief sent Eliseo on a rescue mission to Dnara, hoping to regain his lost honour and purpose. An opportunity to work at VIMER – the Vihaan Infirmary for Medicine, Extraction and Research – gives him the chance to learn a skill he can take back to Vihaan. Lurking in the clinic is a medical anomaly: Malachi. Neither man nor beast, but a complex mix of abilities from both.

Ever since he was attacked as a teenager, Malachi has been in danger, a threat to others, and barely holding onto control. Volunteering for Waylan’s clinic is his only hope to tame the beast inside…until Eliseo arrives, and his beast wants to ravage him in a whole different way.

As they drift beyond patient and doctor, they stumble upon a secret that has been lost in Dnara. A secret that could have deadly consequences, not only for them but for everyone they love…until they realise, too late, some secrets should remain lost.

Excerpt

Lost in Dnara
Elaine White © 2026
All Rights Reserved

Eliseo

Two Years and Six Months Ago: mid-August

E’Boolou Territory, Vihaan

He lit the candle in the front window as the agreed signal that the street was quiet, and as far as his superior hunting senses could detect, everyone who could see his home had gone to bed. If Eliseo tapped into his m’weko hearing, he could tell that his neighbour on the left was snoring, the young couple on the right were having sex, and the woman across the street was soothing her three-month-old baby back to sleep while her husband slept peacefully in another room.

He might stop by for a visit tomorrow and leave some of the camomile salve his mother used to make, which helped babies sleep. She’d lamented numerous times that the only one it had never worked on was Eliseo, not that he’d been surprised to be another disappointment to his parents. It was a well-established fact by now that he’d never done anything right in their eyes.

Maybe tonight would be another way he sullied their memories, but he no longer cared. He hadn’t cared for a long time. Though Alpha Grier would never understand, Eliseo hadn’t mourned the loss of his parents four years ago; he’d celebrated his independence and breathed a sigh of relief that he would no longer have to bear the burden of their judgements. Losing them had lifted a weight off his chest that no one understood.

No one but Simeon Linwood. He’d always been a temptation: too attractive for Eliseo’s heart to bear, a smirk that could make his knees weak, and so strong he could lift Eliseo one-handed, and had done so once or twice in the past.

Earlier, when Eliseo made the mistake of standing by his parents’ graveside, laying flowers to commemorate his fourth year of freedom from them, he hadn’t expected anyone to overhear him speaking to the dead. He was the best m’weko hunter in E’Boolou, but somehow Simeon had snuck up on him and melted his resistance with a charming smile.

“Don’t apologise,” he had said, stepping from the shadow of a tree to stand too close to Eliseo. “When my father doesn’t like someone, you know they have to be the worst kind of asshole. And my father hated your folks. Always said they treated you like a duty rather than a gift.”

Eliseo wasn’t surprised that Nyseth Linwood had seen through his parents. The man doted on his three sons to the point where he was often blind to their faults. “I didn’t mean for anyone to hear me.”

Simeon shrugged, gazing down at him with that knowing look in his eyes, a hint of attraction simmering between them. “It’s more important to be honest about what we feel and what we want than it is to care what anyone will think,” he said, the words sounding like a hint Eliseo didn’t quite follow.

He leaned close to the point where Eliseo lost himself to the distinctive, drugging scent that always radiated from the man. He’d been strong enough not to surrender to Simeon’s flirtations lately, losing the fight only twice in the last year, but he sensed that streak was ready to break.

“Can I come by your house tonight?”

Eliseo blinked at Simeon, confused. The two times he’d surrendered to Simeon’s seductions, they’d had to leave the village and be together in the heart of the woods where no one could hear them. M’weko hearing was exceptional, and unless there was also a female voice mixed in with any cries of pleasure―something Simeon had suggested but Eliseo had refused―everyone in the village would know they’d been intimate together. Two men, two gaoj, sharing a forbidden love with a same-sex partner.

No one would care if they argued their case, and there would be no point denying it. If Alpha Grier found out, they would both be banished to Dnara.

Simeon lowered his mouth to Eliseo’s ear. “Light a candle in your front window to let me know everyone is asleep. If you light another, I’ll know you’re alone and it’s safe to come inside. Leave the back door unlocked.”

Now, Eliseo moved across the room to light the second candle, hating that he’d been so naïve. Unlocked? Neither of his doors had a lock, never mind one routinely locked against the outside.

He hadn’t been brave enough to ask what Simeon wanted, but it had sounded serious, and he could only hope it wasn’t bad news. Simeon was a strong, brave warrior, and Eliseo had worked with him on a hunting team countless times. But if this had been some village or hunting matter there would be no need for secrecy.

He opened the curtains just enough that both candles could be seen, then retreated to the nearby armchair to wait. He didn’t know how long it would take Simeon to arrive, but he’d done as he was bid and could only wait in nervous anticipation.

After a few minutes, a shadow crossed the front window. Eliseo stood, worried that Simeon would be brazen enough to enter through the front door, and rushed to the window. He couldn’t see anything, but his ears pricked at the faint creak of the back door, a sound he’d known for three years, ever since the winter storms had altered the wood.

He spun, watching the dark room until Simeon’s large, broad figure filled the doorway. He wore his patented smirk, the light from his fottai cigarette breaking the darkness around him. “Were you waiting long?” he asked, realising that Simeon must have been waiting nearby to react so quickly to his candle signal.

“Not long.” Simeon removed the cigarette from between his lips and crossed half the room in quick strides. He paused briefly to drop his cigarette into the saucer beneath a plant pot, then walked straight up to Eliseo, caught his face in two large, strong hands and kissed the breath from his body.

Long years of hiding his gaoj nature had Eliseo pushing at Simeon’s chest to no avail, stunned and confused as to why he was doing this in clear view of the window. All it would take was for one person to walk past and they would both be banished.

But Simeon was unrelenting. He plundered Eliseo’s mouth to the point where surrender was the only option. He sagged against Simeon’s chest, hating how he melted at a simple touch from the man; a failing that Simeon never let him forget. Only after he’d had his fill of Eliseo’s mouth, lips, and tongue did he break away and heave a deep sigh.

“What―” Eliseo licked his lips and took a tentative step back to lean against the windowsill.

Simeon cocked his head, smiling. “You don’t feel it?”

“Feel…” Before he could finish, he gave the question some consideration. His breath was laboured, his heartbeat racing, his hands sweating; all the signs of being aroused and attracted to Simeon, well-known from years of being around him. Gaoj or not, the rules didn’t apply to Simeon, who didn’t care if a person was man, woman, m’weko or kalou as long as they liked to be dominated and fucked into senselessness.

Eliseo cleared his throat to rid himself of that thought. Remembering what a good lover Simeon was would only derail his already shattered senses. “I feel…light-headed,” he confessed, surprised when Simeon laughed and closed the distance between them. “Proximity won’t help. In fact, I think it worsens the symptoms.”

Simeon laughed again, such a rare sound that Eliseo smiled, delighted that he could be the cause of such a light and carefree sound. “I didn’t realise how funny you are.” He lifted a hand to brush a stray strand of hair from Eliseo’s eyes, the act oddly tender and incongruous with the expected seduction Eliseo had been waiting for. “Can’t you feel what’s between us? I knew it as soon as I saw you this morning. Standing at that grave, arguing with people long dead, I almost left you to vent. Then I felt it…something was tugging me towards you. It wasn’t until you looked at me that I realised what it was.”

Eliseo blinked, amazed by the passion and wonder in Simeon’s voice. He’d never heard him speak this freely of such serious, romantic things. He was captivated. “What was it?” He didn’t so much care about the words, but the way Simeon looked at him made him want to run and soar high above the clouds.

“You’re my mate, Eliseo.”

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Meet the Author

Elaine White is the author of multi-genre MM romance, celebrating ‘love is love’ and offering diversity in both genre and character within her stories.

Growing up in a small town and fighting cancer in her early teens taught her that life is short and dreams should be pursued. She lives vicariously through her independent, and often hellion characters, exploring all possibilities within the romantic universe.

The Winner of two Watty Awards – Collector’s Dream (An Unpredictable Life) and Hidden Gem (Faithfully) – and an Honourable Mention in 2016’s Rainbow Awards (A Royal Craving) Elaine is a self-professed geek, reading addict, and a romantic at heart.