Chapter 21
***COOPER***
It had only been a day since Sebastian had found them in the crypt and made his threats, but Cooper felt like it had been a week and hoped that his meeting with Marcus Reynolds would take some of the pressure off.
He’d spent every waking moment looking over his shoulder or scanning social media on his phone, dreading finding an announcement or something even worse.
But they hadn’t heard a peep from him, which meant he was planning something, and it was making him very nervous.
Sebastian operating on his own could be very dangerous for them all.
Stephanie had decided to open the site up again that morning, sure that Sebastian would never strike when it was filled with people.
There was work to be done, work that she couldn’t push off any longer.
Cooper had stayed by her side for much of the day, a fact that a few of the other interns noticed, but although there were a few raised eyebrows, no one questioned them.
Now they were all making their way toward the tunnel, another day of work completed, and he was following them to meet Marcus in the parking lot, wondering how the elder was going to feel about the crypt and the mural it contained.
It was a beautiful and sacred space, but its very existence was a danger to the entire shifter community.
As a member of the clan council, it was his job to protect the clan from discovery, and he might want it destroyed, a possibility that chilled him to the bone.
He was waiting on the sidewalk when the big black car pulled up, and Marcus stepped out of the backseat, dressed for a board meeting, not walking around in a cave, and he hoped that meant he didn’t want a tour.
The older man didn’t acknowledge him at first, forcing Cooper to wait patiently while he surveyed the ruined stadium, then finally turned and gave him a big smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Cooper, it’s so good to see you,” he said, walking over to him with his hand out. “I hear you’re doing great things around here.”
“I hope so sir,” he said, shaking hands. “I’ve been doing my best, but we’ve got a little situation here at the ruins. I should have called you sooner, but I thought everything was under control.”
“I see, and what would this little situation be?” Marcus asked. “I assume Sebastian and the Kappas have something to do with it.”
“Yes, sir,” he said. “It might be easier to explain if I show you what we found.”
Half an hour later, Marcus was climbing down the stone steps into the crypt, his expensive suit already covered in dirt, but he didn’t seem to notice; instead, he was focused on the mural.
After letting out a low whistle, he walked over to it, then slowly let his eyes roam from the top to the bottom, a look of wonder on his face.
When he was finished, he turned back to them and shook his head, then took one more look over his shoulder.
“Who else knows about this?” he demanded, a frown on his face.
“The two of us, my fraternity brothers, Sebastian, and now you,” he said. “I don’t know if Sebastian has told anyone, I thought he’d tell his grandfather…”
“As far as we know, he hasn’t talked to his grandfather for weeks,” Marcus said, then slowly walked around the room, looking into the niches carved into the walls at the cloth-draped bodies.
“If we can find a way to silence him, we can cover this up before it gets out. I don’t have to tell you this could destroy us. ”
“No, sir, we understand,” he said, then looked over at Stephanie.
“We were hoping you could help with Sebastian, find a way to get him to back off. He thinks the discovery of the crypt is going to win him the alpha spot. He made a lot of threats, sounded a bit unhinged. Honestly, I’m a little worried about what he might do. ”
Marcus strode back over to the mural and stood staring up at it again for a long time, then shook his head sadly.
“This is an amazing discovery,” he said, turning to face him.
“But it will have to be destroyed, we can’t risk anyone else finding it.
I’ll leave the method up to you, but I want this entire chamber buried before morning. ”
“There has to be another way,” Stephanie spoke up for the first time. “Just give us a little more time. If we don’t have Sebastian breathing down our necks, I’m sure we can think of something.”
Marcus gave her a dirty look. “This is none of your business, you’re not one of us, you shouldn’t even be in here,” he snarled at her. “I’ve put up with you because I don’t have any choice, but keep your silence or I will have you removed.”
Stephanie gasped in shock, then her eyes turned hard. “This is my site, you are only here because I allowed it,” she said, lifting her chin in the air and staring Marcus down. “Show me the respect that I deserve, or you will be the one being shown out.”
It was Marcus’s turn to be surprised, but he hid it well, then acted like she hadn’t even spoken.
“I’ll alert the rest of the council about the situation.
I expect you to keep me informed on your progress carrying out my wishes,” Marcus said, turning toward the steps.
“There’s no room for sentiment in today’s world.
The clan won’t miss this little piece of history, not when it means we get to keep our secrets.
See that it’s done, Cooper. I would hate it if you let us down, there’s no telling what we might be forced to do. ”
***Stephanie ***
“Cooper, what did he mean?” Stephanie asked, all the fight gone out of her when the older man disappeared up the steps. “What is he going to do to you if you don’t do what he says?”
He walked over and pulled her into his arms. “Let me worry about that,” he said. “It’s probably just empty threats anyway.”
She pulled back and looked up at him. “It’s not, and you know it,” she said, stepping away from him. “We’re in this together, Cooper, don’t hide stuff from me, I don’t need you to protect me.”
He was silent for a second. “I know how tough and brave you are, Stephanie. I know that you like to fight your own battles, but this time, you’re out of your league,” he said.
“There are things you don’t understand. If I disobey a direct order from an elder, especially about something like this, there will be repercussions, but they won’t affect you. ”
“Won’t affect me?” she demanded, wondering if he’d forgotten everything that happened the night before.
“I thought you said we’re bonded, I thought you said we’d be together for the rest of our lives.
If that’s true, what happens to you has a big effect on me, so stop being a macho jerk and tell me. ”
“Fine, but you’re just going to worry,” he said, then sighed when she just kept staring at him. “They could take my scholarship, they could kick me out of the clan, they could take it out on my grandmother, Are you happy now?”
“Yes, at least I know, but we’re not going to let any of that happen,” she said, starting to pace around the crypt. “There has to be a way to keep this place a secret without destroying it.”
Cooper just shook his head and watched her pace, a hopeless look on his face, and she understood how he felt, but she wasn’t ready to give up.
After a few minutes, she began to sweat under her coat, pulled it off, threw it down on the dirt floor of the crypt, and started pacing again, turning it all over in her mind repeatedly.
When a cool breeze ruffled her hair, she stopped and pulled it up off her neck, surprised at how hot she’d become from moving around in the tiny space.
“That breeze feels great, I bet that’s why it doesn’t smell gross in here,” she said, then let out a sigh. “I just can’t come up with anything.”
When Cooper didn’t answer, she turned to look over at him. “What did you just say?” he asked. “Just now, what did you say?”
“The breeze feels good,” she said, confused. “Why? What did you think I said?”
“I heard you, it just got me to thinking, and I wanted to hear it again,” he said, looking around at the ceiling of the crypt. “Stephanie, there’s another opening to this cave, another way in, we just have to find it.”
It took her a second to catch on. “The breeze, it’s coming from somewhere outside,” she said, then started looking around too. “If we can find another way in and out of here, we can block off the other entrance, which will keep Sebastian out and make Marcus and your clan happy.”
He looked over at her and grinned. “It just might work,” he said, relief flooding his face. “Even if it’s a tiny tunnel, that’s all we need. I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out sooner.”
“Well, last time we were in here, you were a little distracted,” she said, grinning at him. “But you were right, we just needed to think about something else for a while.”
He laughed. “Minx,” he said. “Now help me look for another way out of here.”
They searched for over an hour until she finally found the crack in the rock wall, back in one corner.
It'd been covered up by a stack of offering jars that she carefully moved out of the way. Kneeling in front of the hole, she felt the breeze on her face, smelled the humidity in the air, and knew they’d found what they were looking for.
“Cooper, I found it, over here in the back of the cave,” she called, standing up again. “It was hidden, but I think the gap is big enough for a grown man to slip through.”
He came over, knelt down where she’d been, then stood up again, grabbed her, and planted a big kiss on her lips. “We did it,” he said. “Now we just have to follow that tunnel to see where it goes.”
“You’re going first,” she said, shivering. “I may be brave, but I hate spiders.”
After a relatively short trip through the tunnel, which proved to be big enough to let them walk with only stooping a little, they came out into a stand of trees on the other side of the stadium.
They looked at each other, big smiles on both their faces, then Cooper grabbed her, his mouth came down on hers, and they celebrated in an entirely new way for her.
When he finally let her go, the smile was still on his face. “We did it, we found another way,” he said. “I told you it would all work out. Now we just have to block the other entrance, and the crypt stays a secret.”
“What about Sebastian?” she asked. “He’s not going to be happy.”
“He’ll just have to get over it, and hopefully Marcus will step in and help us out when he finds out we did what he asked,” he said.
“But we need to be really careful. I meant what I told Marcus; I don’t think he’s very stable.
It happens to shifters like him; the evil inside them eventually rots their humanity away.
I don’t know if he’s there yet, but we need to be on our guard for anything. ”
She shivered and hugged him closer. “I just want this to be over,” she said. “How are we going to block the other entrance?”
“I think we’d better go see Gabe about that,” he said. “He’s the engineer in the group. If there’s a way to do it, he’ll figure it out.”