Chapter 19
***COOPER***
“And what is it that you’re keeping him safe from, sweetheart?” a voice Cooper had come to hate asked. “Besides, isn’t he supposed to be protecting you, not the other way around?”
He whirled around, keeping Stephanie behind him, the instinct to protect her instantly coming to life.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you, I just wanted to see what all the commotion was about,” Sebastian said, looking around the crypt.
After letting out a long, low whistle, he walked toward them.
“I can see why you’ve both been acting so strange.
At first, I thought it was just because you had the hots for each other, as gross as that is, but when you shut down the site for a day, and suddenly disappeared, I knew that something was up.
Looks like I’m right, and this place is practically humming with energy, shame on you for hogging it all to yourself. ”
“Sebastian, you shouldn’t be here, none of us should be here,” he said. “If the world finds this place, it could be a big problem for shifters everywhere. You should leave now.”
He pushed past them as if Cooper hadn’t spoken, then walked up and down in front of the mural before turning back to them.
“I can see what you mean, but I’m not giving this up, it might finally be the thing that gets me the alpha position,” Sebastian said, a strange gleam in his eyes.
“I’d be a fool to walk away, and I’m not a fool.
This is my chance, and I’m going to take it.
Just think how much power I’ll have when I reveal this place to the clan, I’ll be a hero, I’ll be returning a piece of our history.
My name will be known everywhere, and then you’ll be sorry you ever crossed me. ”
Cooper saw the desperation in the other man’s eyes and knew that Sebastian had been devastated when his grandfather turned his back on him after Taylor humiliated him in front of his entire clan.
But that didn’t mean he was going to let him use the crypt and everything it contained to dig himself out of the hole he was in.
I was a sacred place, and he would destroy it before he’d let Sebastian’s clan get ahold of it.
“I think you should leave now,” he said, taking a couple of steps toward Sebastian. “And if you’re smart, you’ll keep your mouth shut. No one is going to be happy about what’s in here. You won’t be a hero if you expose us all; you’ll be the downfall of all shifters everywhere.”
“You’re wrong,” Sebastian said, a stubborn look on his face. “You’ll see, I’m going to be the most powerful alpha my clan has ever had, and I’m going to crush you then, you and all your friends.”
He stomped off, and Cooper was forced to let him go, but he knew they had trouble on their hands.
Turning to Stephanie, he pulled her into his arms. “He won’t do anything without checking in with his clan,” he said.
“His grandfather and the elders will shut him down. They’ll want this kept secret as much as we do, but I guess I’d better make a few phone calls.
My clan should know what’s happening too. ”
“This is getting very complicated,” Stephanie said with a sigh. “Part of me wishes that we’d never found it.”
“It’s going to be okay, you’ll see, we’ll figure it out,” he said, pulling her closer. “For now, let’s get out of here. We both need something to eat and some sleep, then we’ll figure out our next move.”
Sebastian slipped through the gap in the rocks and out into the cold afternoon air with a huge smile on his face.
The answer to all his problems was finally in his grasp.
After weeks of searching for a way to redeem himself in his grandfather’s eyes, he’d finally found something that was sure to please the old man so much that he’d finally do the right thing and appoint him the next alpha of the clan.
Not only that, it would elevate him in the clan, make it impossible for anyone to challenge his authority ever again, and he would finally have all the power he deserved.
As soon as he slipped through the hole he’d cut in the chain link fence, he dug his phone out of his pocket, not wanting to waste a second of his new status as the future leader of the clan.
He was pulling up his grandfather’s number when he realized that redemption felt almost as good as winning, but he hesitated with his finger hovering over the call button, wanting to savor the moment that his entire life was going to change.
He saw his future spinning out in front of him, but the vision turned sour when he heard Cooper’s voice in his head warning him to stay away and realized that he and the woman archaeologist might become a problem.
Then it occurred to him that his grandfather might steal his discovery, might take all the credit for himself; he’d watched him do it to other people enough times, and he slowly put the phone back in his pocket.
If he wanted to be the alpha, he had to start acting like one.
He didn’t need help dealing with Cooper and the woman; he could handle that task on his own, in fact, he was looking forward to it.
Then, when it was all over, he’d tell the clan, not just his grandfather, what he’d found.
It would be the most amazing moment of his life and exactly what he deserved after everything he’d endured growing up.
For the first time in his life, he’d be calling the shots; it wouldn’t matter that he wasn’t related to his grandfather by blood, it wouldn’t matter that he only carried the man’s name; everyone would respect him.
The clan would finally bow down to him, finally recognize his superiority, and he would be able to make them pay for every slight, every dig, every time someone pointed out his faults.
His path was clear to him now; he just had to figure out the details.
Cooper and the woman were all that was standing in his way; if he eliminated them, it would be easy from there.
The call to his grandfather forgotten, he headed for the fraternity house, already turning over all the possibilities in his mind, already feeling giddy with the power that would soon be his.
***Stephanie***
The ruins were eerily quiet as they made their way past all the empty houses to the entrance to the tunnel, but Cooper was gripping her hand firmly in his, and she took comfort from just that small connection between them.
Sebastian’s visit had left her unsettled and afraid, but Cooper seemed confident that everything would work out even if she wasn’t, and he knew more about clans than she did.
She’d have to put her trust in him and hope that they’d be able to stop Sebastian from telling the world about what they’d found.
“What do you think he’s going to do?” she finally asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. “He wouldn’t tell everyone about this, would he?”
Cooper shook his head. “No, I think he’ll go straight to his grandfather,” he said. “I don’t know what they’ll do then; they can’t just come charging in here and claim possession. Technically, all of this belongs to the college right now.”
“Ownership of something like this can get a little muddy, but you’re right, and for the moment, I have control of the site,” she said, then sighed. “But that doesn’t do us much good if word gets out about what’s here.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he said, stopping to turn the lights off, a thoughtful look on his face. “He doesn’t have any proof.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, following him into the tunnel.
“Sebastian doesn’t have any proof of what he saw, he didn’t take any pictures, and he was alone when he came in,” he said. “If he starts blabbing about what he saw, we’ll just claim that he’s lying to try and start trouble, and we’ll come up with a good reason to keep him out.”
“That should buy us some time to figure out how to keep the crypt hidden,” she said, taking a deep breath of fresh air when they emerged from the gap in the rock. “I don’t want to have to destroy it, Cooper, that would be a horrible thing to have to do.”
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then sighed, “I don’t want that either, but I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “Before Sebastian knew about it, I thought we might be able to find another solution. Now I’m beginning to think we don’t have any other choice.”
“We have to make sure he doesn’t get inside again, and I don’t trust that security company anymore,” she said, pointing to the SUV that was still idling in the parking lot.
“After you drop me off at the hotel, I’m going to come back here and spend the night.
Tomorrow, I’ll see if I can find a few volunteers to help out until I can get another security company in here. ”
“You’re not staying here alone, that’s just asking for trouble,” Cooper said. “I’ll stay with you, and maybe I can talk the guys into helping out too, but we’ll have to tell them what's going on.”
She looked over at him. “Are they all…” the words trailed off.
He nodded. “That’s what brought us all together at first,” he said. “But now it’s more than that, they’re like family, they’ll help, and we can trust them.”
“Then it sounds like we have a plan, or at least the beginnings of a plan,” she said, waiting while Cooper opened her door, then let him help her into the truck. “I just hope we can figure out a way to save the crypt without destroying it.”
She watched out the window on the short drive to the fraternity house, thinking how differently the night was going to turn out from the plans they’d made on the way home.
Now instead of a romantic night with the man she was falling in love with, she would be sleeping in a drafty cave, eating cold food out of a can, and trying not to get too filthy.
But the crypt was too important to leave it unprotected and she wouldn’t be alone.
Cooper would be with her and anytime she was with him everything felt a little bit better.
Hattie was just putting dinner on the table when they walked in the back door. “Well, look at that, you’re right on time, and I made plenty,” she said. “Take off your coats, come sit down, and tell us about your trip while we eat. How is your grandmother?”
The warmth of the kitchen, the excellent food, and the companionship around the table helped thaw that chill that had settled over her.
She found that she genuinely liked Cooper’s friends and discovered a shared love of books with Emily and a mutual interest in vintage clothes with Abby.
It was nice to think about something else for a while, but as the meal began to come to a close, Cooper started to fill everyone in on everything that had happened over the last few days.
There was a stunned silence around the table, then a barrage of questions that they did their best to answer, before another silence. “Well, I’ll be happy to help, but I really think you should call Marcus,” Jackson said. “This is something the council should know about.”
“I was planning on doing that, I just haven’t had time,” Cooper said. “I think we need to make sure the crypt is safe first. If Sebastian gets in there again, we might not be able to stop him.”
“I agree,” Gabe said. “Tomorrow is soon enough to call him. Do you want some company tonight? I’d be happy to hang out with you.”
“I think we’ll be all right, but maybe you could take a shift tomorrow night,” Cooper said. “I was hoping you all might pitch in; it shouldn’t be for long.”
By the time they got up from the table, they’d worked out a schedule for the next couple of days, and Stephanie was feeling a little more confident. “It’s nice not to feel so alone in this,” she said. “I’m glad we told them. It doesn’t seem so scary now.”
“I’m lucky to have such great friends,” he said. “Now let’s go find some camping gear. We’ve got an entire shed full of it out back. We may be roughing it, but we’re going to do it in style.”