Page 58 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Theron jerked sharply as the corruption surged again beneath his skin.

Matt saw the black veins spread instantly. “Okay,” he muttered, forcing himself back into focus. “New medical priority.”

He repositioned the blade carefully beneath the exposed shard while Theron braced visibly against the wall behind him. “This is going to hurt.”

Theron gave him a flat look. “You said that already.”

“Yes, but now I’m saying it with concern.”

The shard resisted like it had grown roots through muscle and bone. Matt tightened his grip, swallowed hard, and pulled harder. The shard tore free violently. Theron roared.

The sound detonated through the chamber hard enough that dust burst from the ceiling while black blood splattered across the stone floor. Matt barely had time to throw the shard aside before Theron’s body convulsed violently against the wall.

Then the corruption reacted.

Silver light flared beneath Theron’s skin, not clean or healing, but sharp and fractured where the corruption fought back.

Matt grabbed his shoulders before Theron could shove himself away.

Something between them finally gave way.

Theron’s fear crashed into Matt alongside his own, relief and desperation tangling so completely he could no longer tell where one ended and the other began. For one staggering second, they felt each other without distance, thought, or restraint.

Matt had spent the entire night explaining the connection away: adrenaline, fear, proximity, whatever his exhausted mind could grasp. None of those excuses survived what he felt now. This wasn’t panic or instinct, and it certainly wasn’t the corruption. It was the connection Theron had recognized from the beginning and feared enough to keep unnamed.

Theron froze beneath his hands with a strangled sound somewhere between pain and desperation as the warmth between them flared bright enough to steal Matt’s breath.

The pale eyes snapped toward him. Silver flickered wildly through them.

“Matt,” Theron said, and this time the name sounded terrified.

Matt tightened his grip instead of letting go. “Hey,” he said firmly. “Stay with me.”

The corruption surged again. Matt felt it now through the bond itself, cold and hungry and ancient in a way that made instinct recoil automatically.

Something beneath the mountain was reaching toward Theron through the channel the shard had left behind, trying to pull him back.

Theron’s breathing broke unevenly while his entire body trembled beneath Matt’s hands. “I cannot.”

“Yes, you can.”

The answer came out harder than Matt intended.

Theron looked at him like he had forgotten anyone could speak to him that way.

Matt leaned closer without fully realizing he was doing it. “You survived this long alone,” he said. “You are not losing yourself now.”

The chamber shook violently again. Another roar thundered through the catacombs.

But this time Theron did not look toward it. His entire focus remained locked on Matt. Painfully, the silver light beneath his skin began to dim. The trembling eased next.

Then the growling beneath his breathing finally quieted altogether.

Matt exhaled shakily without realizing he had been holding his breath.

For several long seconds neither of them moved. They were suddenly very close.

Close enough that Matt could feel the heat of Theron’s breath against his face despite the cold air filling the chamber. Close enough that the bond pulsed steadily between them now instead of violently, warm and aching and impossible to ignore.