Page 7 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Matt had expected Valker headquarters to feel larger in some way that had nothing to do with its physical dimensions. The facility already stretched deep enough underground to make his instincts restless. He had expected something else from the organization itself. More movement. More noise. More people trying too hard to project danger.

Instead, the deeper Keene guided him into the facility, the quieter everything became.

The silence felt disciplined rather than relaxed. It felt controlled in the same deliberate way experienced soldiers went quiet before an operation turned dangerous. Nobody wasted movement. Nobody spoke louder than necessary. Every person Matt passed seemed focused on conserving energy for something waiting ahead.

The atmosphere reminded him too much of Iraq.

That realization settled heavily in his chest as Keene led him through another secured checkpoint. Two guards stood outside the reinforced door, both of them appearing human until Matt caught the scent underneath. Wolf. Older too, if instinct meant anything. Their attention lingered on him slightly longer than necessary before one of them unlocked the door.

Nobody smiled or bothered introducing themselves, which was starting to make Matt think Valker considered basic social skills an operational liability.

“You people always this welcoming?” he asked as the door sealed shut behind them.

Keene continued walking without looking back. “This is welcoming.”

Matt glanced around the sterile corridor again. “That is deeply concerning.”

“You’ll adjust.”

Matt doubted that.

The corridor eventually opened into a sprawling operations room alive with the glow of tactical displays and wall-sized digital maps that cast shifting light across steel floors and reinforced concrete walls. Rows of workstations stretched across the space while personnel moved between them with quiet efficiency, their low clipped conversations blending with the hum of electronics and the occasional burst of static from distant radios. The room felt more military than anything else Matt had seen underground so far, except no Army operations center had ever carried the constant scent of predators packed together beneath layers of recycled air and industrial cleaner.

Several heads turned when Matt entered the room, and while nobody looked openly hostile, he could still feel the careful evaluation following him as personnel assessed the bitten hyena shifter walking through their operations floor. Matt ignored the scrutiny the same way he had ignored inexperienced officers trying to size him up after promotions while Keene continued across the room toward a glass-walled conference room overlooking the rest of the facility.

Matt glanced toward him. “This yours?”

“No.”

“See? That almost sounded conversational.”

Keene opened the door. “Don’t get used to it.”

Matt stepped inside a conference room that felt cold in the deliberate way military briefing rooms often did, stripped down to a steel conference table, wall-mounted digital displays, and low lighting that only emphasized how far underground they really were.

Three people already occupied the room, and Matt’s attention settled on the woman seated near the far end of the table with silver hair braided tightly over one shoulder and sharp amber eyes focused on the tablet in front of her. He recognized wolf instantly, but the instinctive response beneath his skin went deeper than species alone, because authority rolled off her in steady controlled waves that made the hyena pay attention.

The second man looked human until he glanced up and Matt caught sight of eyes that were entirely black in a way that felt permanent rather than concealed. The hyena noticed.

The third man lounged comfortably in his chair with the relaxed confidence of someone who had long since stopped needing to prove how dangerous he was. A pale scar cut through one eyebrow, and beneath the expensive cologne, Matt caught a deep predatory scent that the hyena identified as wolf.

Nobody stood when Matt entered the room, though years of military conditioning made him register the lack of acknowledgment.

Keene closed the door behind them. “Reynolds has arrived.”

Matt felt the difference more sharply now each time he heard the name instead of Matt.

A moment later, the silver-haired woman looked up from her tablet. “Matthew Reynolds.”

The use of his full name caught him off guard enough that he blinked surprised she had picked up on the distinction so quickly.

“Uh,” Matt said intelligently. “Yeah. That’s me.”

Something dangerously close to amusement flickered across her expression before disappearing again. “Sit down, Mr. Reynolds.”

Matt grimaced internally because being called Mr. Reynolds was somehow even worse, then dropped into the nearest chair and set his duffel beside his feet while silence stretched across the room. The wolf shifter studied him openly, while the black-eyed man watched with a fixed intensity that would have been far less unsettling if he had blinked more than once.

Matt sighed. “I’m starting to feel like I’m either being recruited or sacrificed.”