Page 123 of The Hyena’s Guardian

The massive hyena launched himself into the advancing swarm.

He struck them like a collapsing wall, all brute force and speed. Corrupted wolves flew from the bridge as he tore through their center rather than fighting defensively as every wolf expected. He fought without interest in dominance or hierarchy. Anything threatening Theron became something to destroy.

One creature launched itself at him from behind. The hyena twisted with startling speed, catching it in his jaws before driving both of them into the bridge hard enough to shatter stone. Bone crunched between his teeth as he ripped the creature free and flung the ruined body into the swarm.

Another charged from the side. The hyena met it head-on, smashing into it with enough force to send both creatures skidding across the fractured bridge. His jaws closed around its throat while his foreclaws raked through the black mineral fused to its ribs. Stone-like armor that should have turned any ordinary attack split beneath the assault.

The corrupted wolves faltered.

Then they began backing away.

Not strategically.

Instinctively.

The King took a single step backward from the throne.

The movement was almost imperceptible, but Theron saw it, and so did the mountain. The crushing pressure inside his skull eased as the corrupted wolves’ perfect coordination unraveled.

The King could not control what he could not predict. Matt had become chaos inside a system built entirely on domination.

Vale stared while reloading. “Well, that’s new.”

Matt’s hyena held the center of the bridge among broken bodies and black blood, chest heaving beneath the full shift. Then he faced the throne and laughed again.

The sound carried open defiance.

The King’s certainty fractured, and the damage rippled through the mountain.

Pressure eased inside Theron’s skull while the corrupted wolves scattered into confusion.

The hyena had broken something deeper than flesh, stone, or chains.

He slammed through another wolf, crushed it beneath his weight, and raked his claws through the creatures trying to close around him. Several creatures lost their footing and disappeared into the abyss.

The King’s expression darkened. “You should not exist.”

This time, the words carried anger.

The mountain answered. The abyss brightened while black mineral spread across the bridges. The retreating creatures stopped, and every corrupted wolf turned toward Theron.

The King’s command slammed into his skull.

Take him.

Pain drove Theron to one knee, and the throne chamber vanished.

Sunlight spilled across polished black stone beneath towering palace columns. Banners snapped in a desert wind. Wolves lined the throne room with lowered heads as a younger Theron crossed toward the raised platform.

Young, human, and unbroken.

The vision carried something older than memory.

The mountain had fed fragments of the King’s life through the bloodline for centuries. Now those inherited echoes wrapped around Theron until they felt real.

The King waited above him, alive and powerful, utterly certain the world belonged beneath his feet.

“You carry our future.”