Page 49 of The Right to Bear Claws
"Then I'll make sure that doesn't happen."
"How?" Elder Bram demanded, his usually cold demeanor cracking with genuine worry. "This isn't a problem you can solve with brute force and protective instincts. In the dream realm, belief shapes reality, and if Tobias has had hours to work on her psyche?—"
"Then she needs someone to remind her what's real." Elias turned to face the assembled Council members, his voice carrying the kind of quiet authority that made even Elder Bram listen. "She needs to know that someone cared enough to followher into hell. That the love she's fighting for is real enough to cross between worlds."
"The ritual requires a blood anchor," Lucien continued, running his finger along the ancient text. "Someone whose life force is so deeply connected to yours that they can hold your consciousness tethered while you travel. It has to be family, someone who'd literally die before letting you go."
"We'll do it," Thorin said immediately, speaking for the Vane clan without consultation. "All of us, if that's what it takes."
"The risk—" Magnus began.
"Is ours to take," Finn interrupted, moving to stand beside Elias with typical younger brother loyalty.
Magnus studied his sons' faces and read the absolute determination written there. Finally, he sighed with the weight of someone who understood that some battles chose you, regardless of the odds.
"What do we need to do?"
The ritual preparation took an hour they couldn't spare, but Lucien insisted on precision. Salt circles were drawn around both Elias and Kaia's unconscious forms, connecting them with lines of power that pulsed with ancient energy. The Vane brothers positioned themselves at cardinal points around their brother, each one placing a hand on his shoulders or arms to create an unbreakable chain of connection.
"Remember," Lucien said, making final adjustments to the ward configurations, "in the dream realm, your bear's strength will be your greatest asset and your greatest vulnerability. Tobias will try to use your protective instincts against you, twist your need to save her into something destructive."
"I understand."
"Listen, if you go in there thinking you can physically fight this thing, you'll lose. Dream entities don't follow physical laws—they follow emotional ones. Your power comes from your connection to her, not your ability to intimidate."
"I said I understand." Elias settled into position beside Kaia, one hand covering hers while the other rested against his heart. "How long will the crossing take?"
"Unknown. Time moves differently in dream realms. Minutes here could be hours there, or vice versa." Lucien's expression grew grave. "And Elias? If something goes wrong, if you get trapped or corrupted, we'll have to sever the connection. Your brothers won't let you take them down with you."
"They won't have to. I'm coming back with her, or not at all."
"That's exactly the kind of thinking that'll get you killed," Magnus said sharply. "You go in there with a death wish, and that's exactly what you'll find. Go in there with the absolute certainty that you're both coming home, and maybe you will."
The ritual words were in a language older than modern civilization, syllables that seemed to resonate in bones rather than ears. As Lucien chanted, the salt circles began to glow with silver light, and Elias felt his consciousness loosening from his physical form like a rope being slowly untied.
"Hold fast," he heard Magnus whisper, his father's voice growing distant. "We've got you, son. We won't let go."
The crossing felt like drowning in reverse. Instead of water filling his lungs, light poured out of him until only essential self remained. His bear's consciousness merged more fully with his human awareness, creating a hybrid state that was neither fully man nor fully animal.
Then the waking world disappeared entirely, replaced by something that made his enhanced senses reel with wrongness.
The dream realm was chaos given form—landscapes that shifted without warning, gravity that flowed like water, and an oppressive atmosphere thick with old fear and newer despair.But underneath it all, Elias could sense his mate's presence like a beacon calling him home.
This way,his bear insisted, though there was no clear path through the swirling nightmare terrain.She's this way, fighting something that stinks of ancient malice.
Elias let his animal instincts guide him, pushing through forests of crystallized screams and across rivers that ran backwards through time. The deeper he traveled into Tobias's domain, the stronger the wrongness became—a pervasive sense of corruption that made his bear snarl.
"Interesting," a voice said, carrying the hollow echo of something that had forgotten how to be human. "A bear shifter in my realm. How delightfully unexpected."
"Tobias." Elias didn't bother looking around for the source of the voice. In this place, presence mattered more than form. "Let her go."
"Let her go? But she came to me willingly, sacrificed herself to protect the people she loves. Surely you wouldn't want me to disrespect such noble self-destruction?"
"She came because you manipulated her. Because you fed her lies about being a danger to everyone she cares about."
"Did I? Or did I simply help her see truths she was too cowardly to face?" The voice grew closer, more solid. "Tell me, bear shifter, what have you actually contributed to her life besides additional complications? What happiness have you brought her that isn't shadowed by the fear of what loving you might cost?"
"That's between me and her."
