Page 151 of The Hyena’s Guardian

“A cellphone.”

Theron’s eyes narrowed. “That word explains nothing.”

Matt unlocked the screen. “It lets me talk to people who aren’t here.”

“Through that?”

“Yep.”

“Without magic?”

“Mostly.”

Theron looked at him sharply. “Mostly?”

Matt grinned. “There’s an old saying that advanced enough science starts looking a lot like magic.”

“That is not comforting.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

Theron watched the screen light beneath Matt’s thumb, fascination overtaking suspicion. “So humans trapped voices inside small glass stones.”

“When you say it like that, I understand why you keep judging us.”

Theron’s gaze stayed fixed on the phone. “I am not judging. I am reassessing the danger of modern civilization.”

“Wait until you meet the internet.”

“I already dislike that word.”

Matt smiled despite himself. The familiar contact list came briefly into view beneath his thumb, and for the first time since they escaped the mountain, nervousness hit him harder than any injury currently screaming through his body.

“You are anxious,” he observed, studying him carefully.

“Yeah.” Matt rubbed tiredly at the back of his neck. “Little bit.”

“Because of them?”

Matt glanced over toward him. “Mac and Melvin are…” He paused briefly, like the words carried more weight than he knew how to explain easily. “They’re Pack.”

A quiet thread of uncertainty moved carefully through the bond.

“They guided me after I was turned,” Matt continued more softly. “Back when I was still trying to figure out what the hell I was becoming. Mac taught me how to survive the shifts without losing myself to them. Melvin taught me how to stop being terrified of what I’d become every second of the day.”

A faint smile touched his mouth afterward, though emotion roughened the edges of his voice. “Everything I still have is because they refused to let me go through it alone.”

Theron looked toward the rain-streaked windows instead. “And now they will decide whether I am acceptable.”

Matt blinked once before understanding sat heavily into place. “Oh.” His expression softened. “Theron.”

The older wolf remained still beside him, though Matt could feel the restraint threaded carefully beneath the surface through the bond now. Centuries alone had clearly taught Theron exactly what it meant to be tolerated conditionally.

Matt stepped closer without thinking about it. “That’s not what this is.”

Theron’s eyes lifted toward him.

“They’re going to care that you kept me alive,” Matt said quietly. “And Melvin’s probably going to threaten bodily harm if you let me do anything reckless again.”