Page 34 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Worry tightened his features. “Who followed me?” Matt asked.

The creature finally looked back at him, pale eyes narrowing.

“The hungry ones.”

A violent crash exploded somewhere deeper in the tunnels before Matt could respond.

Stone shattered against stone followed by a sound that did not belong anywhere near human lungs. The scream that followed it cut off abruptly.

Matt’s grip tightened around the pistol. “Okay,” he said carefully, “I’m starting to feel like this cave system has multiple murder problems.”

The creature moved toward him again, faster this time, though it stopped several feet away instead of grabbing him.

Up close, Matt noticed fresh blood matted through sections of the fur along its shoulder and ribs. Deep wounds crossed the skin beneath it, partially healed but still raw. Whatever this thing was, it had already survived something brutal down here.

“You need to move,” the creature said, the words coming more steadily now despite the strain in its voice. “They smell you.”

Matt stared at him for half a second, momentarily forgetting the claws, the blood, and the fact he was trapped underground with a creature large enough to tear him apart.

“You...can talk.”

The creature paused briefly before answering, obvious irritation flickering across his expression despite the tension tightening through the corridor. “Yes.”

“That honestly raises more questions than it answers.”

Another scream echoed faintly through the tunnels before Matt could say anything else. This one sounded closer.

The creature looked toward the darkness again, every muscle tightening beneath its skin.

Matt finally lowered the pistol. “You got a name?”

For the first time since the encounter began, hesitation crossed the creature’s expression.

“Theron,” he said.

The name hit Matt strangely hard precisely because it did not sound monstrous.

Another crash thundered behind them, followed by claws racing across stone toward the corridor.

Theron turned instantly toward the sound while the low growl returned to his throat.

“Now move,” he said.

Matt followed him deeper into the tunnels before realizing he had never answered the question himself.

“Matt,” he said between breaths.

Theron glanced back once and something in his expression changed.

“Matt,” he repeated, like he was testing the sound of it.

The sounds behind them grew louder.

Claws scraped across rock somewhere beyond the collapse chamber while uneven shrieks echoed through the tunnels in short bursts that sounded horribly excited. Matt’s pulse climbed harder with every step as the hyena sharpened into raw instinctive alertness.

“They’re tracking us?” he asked between breaths.

“They track everything,” Theron answered without slowing.