Page 52 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Theron braced one hand against the tunnel wall and forced a slow breath through clenched teeth. Matt noticed his claws digging grooves into the stone hard enough to crack it.

“You’re losing control.”

Theron stayed silent.

Matt moved closer anyway. “Theron.”

The pale eyes lifted toward him again, and this time Matt saw genuine fear behind them. Not fear of the hungry ones. Fear of himself.

“The corruption spreads more quickly now,” Theron said. “The more he wakes, the harder it becomes to fight.”

The exhaustion beneath the words struck Matt harder than he expected. “Then we stop him,” he said confidently.

Theron gave a rough humorless sound beneath his breath. “Many tried.”

“I’m stubborn enough to continue the tradition.”

Theron held his gaze for a heartbeat longer than necessary.

Then another violent pulse rolled through the tunnel. This one hit differently.

Matt felt it physically pass through him like cold water beneath the skin while Theron staggered hard against the wall beside him. A sharp growl escaped before he could suppress it, and his body jerked violently enough that Matt grabbed his arm instinctively to steady him. The reaction was immediate.

Theron sucked in a sharp breath while the bond surged painfully hot between them. Matt felt the shift ripple through Theron’s body beneath his grip almost like a current fighting itself.

Matt’s flashlight caught something beneath the torn skin near Theron’s shoulder.

A jagged black shard lay embedded deep beneath the flesh, its fractured edge barely visible. Thin dark veins radiated from it beneath the skin, branching like cracks through glass.

Matt’s stomach tightened. “What the hell is that?”

Theron instinctively turned his shoulder away. “…Part of the prison.”

“It’s inside you.”

A long silence followed.

“It wasn’t always.”

Another tremor rolled through the tunnel, and this one carried screams with it. Human voices echoed faintly through the stone ahead. Both of them reacted instantly.

Theron’s head snapped toward the darkness farther down the corridor. The growl beneath his breathing deepened.

“Survivors.”

He listened another moment before looking toward the passage ahead. “If any of the Valker team still live, they’ll have fallen back to the inner sanctum.”

Matt stared at him. “You know that?”

Theron nodded once. “Because that’s where I would have taken them.”

Matt let go and checked the magazine in his pistol. “Then we go get them.”

Theron did not move.

Matt hesitated. “What?”

The pale eyes shifted back toward him with visible hesitation. “There may be a way to stop him.”