9. Chapter 9 - Matt #2
Theron looked at him like he did not know what to do with the gentleness of it. Like the contact itself hurt in some quieter, more dangerous way. Theron held himself perfectly still, but the loneliness in his eyes was impossible to hide.
Matt saw enough to understand that nobody had touched Theron like this in a very long time.
Maybe nobody ever had.
Matt swallowed once before letting his hand fall. The contact had lasted only a few seconds. It felt far longer.
Matt smiled. “Looks like you’re winning.”
Theron stared at him. The words seemed to hit harder than Matt intended. Something shifted behind the pale eyes, something vulnerable enough that Theron quickly looked away. Matt pretended not to notice, because some things deserved privacy.
Another tremor rolled through the mountain. This one stronger than the last. Somewhere across the chamber, Baptiste shouted for everyone’s attention.
Reality returned all at once.
The catacombs pressed back in around them with their distant roars, trembling stone, and the constant awareness that something ancient was waking beneath their feet.
Across the chamber, survivors whispered arguments over escape routes while floodlights flickered against fractured walls and collapsing support pillars.
The moment between them shattered beneath the weight of it all.
“We should probably go save everybody.”
Theron looked at him again.
Without the silver corruption burning through Theron’s eyes, Matt could finally see the man beneath everything else more clearly.
Theron held his gaze for a long moment before nodding.
“Yes,” he said. “We should.”
***
The chamber became controlled chaos once they started moving again.
Vale divided the survivors into smaller groups while Baptiste worked beside the injured near the collapsed passage. Operatives dismantled the portable floodlights and redistributed spare magazines as the tremors beneath the mountain continued growing stronger.
Nobody argued with Theron anymore.
That unsettled Matt almost as much as their open hostility had.
The distrust had changed. Earlier they had looked at Theron like a monster. Now they looked at him like a warning.
Theron seemed painfully aware of it.
He stayed near the outer edges of the chamber while Vale reviewed possible routes with Baptiste, keeping enough distance between himself and the others that nobody had to wonder whether he was doing it intentionally.
Matt suspected he was. “You could at least pretend this doesn’t bother you,” Matt muttered as he approached.
Theron glanced toward the survivors before looking away again. “Fear is reasonable.”
“That doesn’t mean you deserve it.” The answer came out sharper than Matt intended.
Theron studied him briefly, but the next tremor interrupted whatever answer he might have given.
One of the younger wolves cursed under his breath. “How much time do we actually have?”
Nobody answered right away. Matt noticed Vale looking toward Theron again. So did everyone else.
Theron’s jaw tightened. “I do not know. Rest while you still can.”
The honesty in his voice silenced the chamber.
Baptiste rose from beside the injured operative and crossed toward them. “The eastern passages collapsed entirely,” he said. “If we want any chance of reaching the surface, we need another route.”
Theron hesitated before answering. “There is one.”
Vale caught it. “But?”
Theron looked deeper into the tunnels beyond the chamber. “It passes near the source chamber.”
The atmosphere instantly changed. Even without fully understanding the mountain yet, everyone understood enough to know that was bad.
“The thing powering the prison,” Baptiste said.
Theron nodded once.
“And the First King?” Vale asked.
A distant roar rolled upward through the catacombs before Theron answered. “Growing stronger.”
Nobody liked that response.
Matt rubbed one hand across his face. “You know, I miss normal classified operations. I really took boring military conspiracies for granted.”
To his surprise, a few strained laughs actually broke through the tension.
Theron looked toward Matt, confusion briefly overtaking his expression. Not at the joke, but at the way it eased the room around them.
He looked as though he had forgotten tension could lessen instead of simply escalating.
Baptiste stepped closer a moment later. “You said the source chamber may destroy the prison if it collapses.”
“Yes.”
“And you are certain?”
“No.”
“Well,” Baptiste muttered, “that’s horrifying.”
Theron’s gaze shifted toward the deeper tunnels again, and Matt noticed the change in him. Enough of the brief calm from earlier had faded to leave tension gathering between them again.
Theron’s shoulders had tightened again, and fresh blood darkened the torn fabric over his ribs. One claw flexed against the stone before he deliberately forced his hand to relax.
Their eyes met briefly. Theron looked away first. That alone told Matt how hard he was fighting to keep control again.
Another roar echoed upward through the mountain.
The floodlights flickered violently before dimming all at once. Cold rolled through the chamber hard enough that several operatives instinctively tightened their grip on their weapons while shadows shifted uneasily along the fractured walls.
Theron went completely still.
Matt felt the bond tighten sharply between them before he fully understood why. Instinct pulled him closer automatically, and for half a second the claws lengthened again beneath Theron’s partially shifted hands.
Then Matt reached for his arm.
The reaction was immediate.
The tension locking through Theron’s body eased just enough for him to breathe again, and this time nobody missed it.
The survivors stared openly now. At Matt’s hand wrapped around Theron’s arm. At the calm settling through Theron beneath the contact. At the bond neither of them could deny anymore. Theron looked down briefly at Matt’s hand still resting against him.
Theron’s relentless restraint faltered at last, and beneath it Matt saw something he had never expected to find there.
Hope.