Page 130 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Matt knew exactly what he intended. “No.”

Theron ignored him and stepped toward the collapsing central bridge. “The stabilizers were never designed to save the throne chamber. They were designed to bury it before the King could anchor himself inside the seal.”

Baptiste looked between Theron and the detonator. “If we overload the heart seal directly—”

“The chamber collapses inward before the connection is complete,” Theron finished. “It buries him with the prison.”

Matt stepped directly in front of him. “Absolutely not.”

“It will reseal the fracture.”

“It will kill you.”

Theron held his gaze steadily despite the chaos surrounding them. “If the King leaves this mountain, there will be no containing what follows.”

Matt’s claws flexed hard against the fractured stone beneath him. “I am getting really tired of you volunteering for death like it’s a personality trait.”

Theron’s composure cracked for a heartbeat, exposing an affection so unguarded that panic climbed higher inside Matt’s chest.

The King watched them with growing understanding. Matt saw understanding settle across the ancient wolf’s expression.

Then the King smiled. “You still think sacrifice makes him noble,” he said. “That is why he belongs to me.”

The bond surged violently.

Matt felt Theron recoil from the words internally even while his expression remained controlled on the surface. The King was twisting something dangerously close to the truth.

Theron had spent centuries believing suffering was the same thing as duty.

Matt closed the distance until nothing stood between Theron and the King except him.

“No,”

He held the king's gaze.

“He belongs to himself.”

The chamber went still for half a heartbeat. Then the King roared.

The force tore through the throne chamber hard enough to split the central bridge directly down the middle.

The mountain began dying around them. Another violent tremor wrenched the broken halves of the bridge farther apart while the abyss beneath the throne erupted with blinding red light. Entire sections of the chamber collapsed into the widening fracture as black mineral spread wildly across the remaining stone like a living infection losing control of its own body.

The First King stood at the center of it all beside the throne, rage twisting across his fractured face while the chamber disintegrated around him.

“You cannot stop what I have become,” he roared.

Theron stepped forward anyway.

Matt caught his arm. “Absolutely not.”

Theron turned toward him, and for a second the chaos around them seemed to fall away beneath the bond tightening sharply between them.

“If we overload the seal before he finishes anchoring himself inside it, the fracture collapses inward,” Theron said. “The mountain buries him instead of setting him free.”

Matt already hated where this was going. “And you?”

For one unguarded second, Matt saw fear.