Page 70 of The Hyena’s Guardian

None of it centered on himself.

Even now, standing inside a collapsing prison beneath a mountain with an ancient creature waking somewhere below them, Matt’s concern remained fixed entirely on Theron. “You should have told me sooner.”

“There was no reason.”

Matt stared at him in disbelief. “Theron, your definition of no reason is genuinely horrifying.”

The words should have sounded light. They did not.

Theron looked at him fully then and saw the exhaustion finally slipping through the composure Matt carried so carefully for everyone else. Fear lingered beneath it now too, sharper than before.

Not fear of the mountain.

Theron knew that feeling too well to mistake it for anything else. What moved through the bond now was sharper and far more personal. Matt was afraid of losing him.

The realization still felt dangerous in ways Theron did not know how to survive. And yet the bond carried no uncertainty with it, only quiet undeniable truth.

Matt stepped closer before lowering his voice enough that the others could not overhear.

“If this gets bad down there,” he said carefully, “you tell me immediately.”

Theron held his gaze. “Matt.”

“I mean it.”

The force behind the words caught Theron off guard.

Matt rarely sounded commanding with him. Frustrated, sarcastic, stubborn certainly, but not like this. The quiet intensity beneath the words felt different from authority. It carried none of the sharp edges of control Theron had spent centuries obeying beneath the mountain.

This came from fear, not for himself but for someone he was trying desperately to keep alive.

The realization settled heavily inside Theron’s chest as Matt stepped closer again, close enough that the warmth of him pressed steadily through the bond. Without seeming to think about it, Matt’s hand caught briefly against Theron’s wrist where the corruption scars still darkened the skin beneath his sleeve.

The touch lasted only a second. It still felt devastating.

Theron looked down automatically toward Matt’s hand resting against him so naturally, as though reaching for Theron had already become instinct.

No one had touched him without hesitation in a very long time. No one had tried protecting him in even longer. The thought hurt in ways Theron did not know how to name. “You cannot save everyone,” he said softly.

Matt’s expression shifted, exhaustion and determination tangling together beneath the floodlight glow. “Watch me try.”

The answer threatened to break something open inside Theron.

Because Matt meant it.

Not as optimism. Not as bravado. As conviction so deeply rooted that Theron suspected Matt would continue throwing himself between danger and strangers until someone physically stopped him from doing it.

The bond surged warmly between them before Theron could contain the reaction. Matt seemed to feel it too because his fingers tightened once against Theron’s wrist while his breathing caught almost imperceptibly.

For one dangerous second, the bond eclipsed everything else.

Theron wanted to pull him closer. The truth of it landed hard enough that he nearly stepped backward from it. He had spent centuries surviving hunger, corruption, and isolation beneath the mountain. None of it had prepared him for wanting something he could not bear to lose.

“Theron.” Vale’s voice cut cleanly through the moment.

Both of them looked toward her.

The commander stood near the tunnel entrance with the movement teams assembled behind her. Floodlights cast long shadows across the fractured chamber walls while uneasy silence settled over the catacombs.