***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.”
CHAPTER 22
***COOPER***
Cooper and Stephanie sat across the table from Gabe, watching as he tapped away at his computer, the food Hattie had insisted they take sitting untouched in front of them. “Well, I think what you’re asking can be done, but you’re taking a huge risk if you do this. The whole place could come crashing down,” his friend finally said. “You better make sure everyone is out when you set off the charge.”
