Page 20 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Because for half a second, he could have sworn something inside the excavation had looked back at him.

***

The aircraft touched down hard enough to rattle the entire cabin.

Rain exploded across the fuselage while the landing gear slammed against uneven ground beneath them, and for a brief second the transport tilted sideways hard enough that several operatives instinctively grabbed for nearby restraints before the pilot corrected the angle.

Then the engines sank into a lower mechanical roar.

“Perimeter first. Then we advance.” Vale stepped toward the hatch.

The deployment hatch lowered into the storm, and cold air hit the cabin all at once, sharp with rain, mud, fuel exhaust, and something older underneath it that Matt could not identify. The smell reminded him vaguely of wet stone left sealed underground too long, as though the mountain itself had exhaled after centuries of holding its breath.

The wolf operatives exited first, rifles already raised as they spread outward into defensive positions around the landing zone. Floodlights cut harsh white beams through the rain while ground crews hurried toward the aircraft with equipment carts and secured cases half-hidden beneath waterproof tarps.

Matt stepped out into the storm a second later and understood why everyone looked tense.

The monastery felt physically wrong, as if the mountain itself carried a pressure Matt could sense beneath his skin.

The sensation pressed against him the moment his boots hit the ground, subtle but unmistakable, like static crawling across the back of his neck. The hyena reacted instantly with sharp restless awareness while instinct pulled his attention toward the excavation entrance visible farther up the ruined courtyard.

Everything about this place felt awake.

Rain soaked through Matt’s jacket while thunder rolled across the mountains hard enough to vibrate through the stone beneath his boots. Up close, the monastery looked even older than it had from the air. Massive sections of the outer walls had collapsed inward centuries ago, leaving shattered black stone exposed beneath newer reconstruction attempts that somehow looked fragile by comparison.

Like humans had tried to repair something they never fully understood.

Ground personnel moved quickly through the storm carrying crates between portable floodlights and reinforced equipment tents positioned near the excavation perimeter. Nobody wasted motion. Nobody lingered near the entrance longer than necessary.

Matt noticed that right away too.

Baptiste stepped beside him while rain streamed from the hood of his jacket. “You’re staring again.”

Matt kept his eyes fixed on the excavation site. “Tell me you don’t feel this place.”

Baptiste was quiet for a moment. “I feel it,” he admitted.

That answer should not have been reassuring, but somehow it was. At least Matt was not imagining the pressure crawling beneath his skin.

Commander Vale approached through the rain while Keene followed several steps behind carrying a sealed case in one hand.

“We move underground in thirty minutes,” Vale said. “Ground teams established perimeter containment shortly after sunset. No operative has descended below level three since yesterday.”

Matt tilted his head. “Because?”

Vale met his eyes evenly. “Because the last team that attempted it did not come back.”

The storm seemed quieter for about half a second after that sentence.

Matt looked toward the excavation entrance again as lightning flashed across the mountains overhead. The floodlights illuminated the massive claw marks surrounding the exposed descent beneath the monastery.

Up close, they looked even worse.

The marks were too deliberate for random damage and too precise for animal behavior.

The gouges cut through solid stone in long, controlled arcs, deep enough that rainwater pooled inside them before spilling into the darkness below.

Matt stared at them longer than he meant to. His animal instincts went completely still, sharpening toward something beyond the reach of his human senses.