Page 50 of The Right to Bear Claws
"From where I stand, it looks like your so-called love has brought her nothing but sleepless nights and supernatural enemies. Perhaps she's better off in my realm, where her power can be celebrated instead of feared."
Elias felt the dream realm pressing against his consciousness, trying to worm doubt into his thoughts the way poison crept through blood. But his bear's fury burned too bright for subtlety to take hold.
"Nice try," he said grimly. "But I know what's real, and it's not whatever twisted version of events you're trying to sell. Where is she?"
"Closer than you think. Farther than you can reach." Tobias's laughter was the sound of glass breaking in empty rooms. "She's fighting me, I'll give her that. More spirit than I expected from someone so convinced of her own worthlessness. But spirit breaks, given time and pressure."
"Not hers." Elias pushed deeper into the realm, following the connection that sang between his soul and Kaia's. "She's stronger than you think. Stronger than you can handle."
"We shall see. But tell me, what makes you think a creature of flesh and blood can navigate realms of pure consciousness? What makes you think your crude animal strength will serve you here?"
"Because my strength isn't crude." Elias felt his bear's presence expand, filling the dream space with fury that made the false landscape shiver. "It's absolute. And it's hers."
The realm shuddered around him, and somewhere in the distance, he heard the sound of something vast and ancient beginning to crack. Tobias's carefully constructed prison was failing, worn down by Kaia's resistance from within and his own presence pressing from without.
"Impossible," Tobias snarled. "You're just another shifter, another animal playing at humanity?—"
"I'm her mate," Elias said simply. "And I'm here to take her home."
His bear's roar echoed through the dream realm like thunder, a sound of primal claiming that no amount of ancientmalice could silence. In the distance, something answered—a familiar voice calling his name with desperate hope.
Kaia.
"Hold on," he whispered, pushing toward her presence with single-minded determination. "I'm coming."
24
KAIA
The roar that shattered Tobias's crumbling nightmare realm was unmistakably bear—deep, primal, and absolutely furious. Kaia's heart leaped with recognition and terror in equal measure.
"Elias," she breathed, spinning around in the shifting dreamscape as Tobias's false Hollow Oak dissolved into chaos. "No, no, no. You can't be here. You can't?—"
"Well, well," Tobias's voice carried new notes of anticipation and hunger. "How touching. Your mate has come to rescue you. Though I suspect he has no idea what he's walked into."
"Let him go," Kaia said desperately, her newfound strength wavering in the face of this new threat. "This is between you and me. He doesn't deserve to be trapped here because of my mistakes."
"Deserve? Oh, my dear little dreamwalker, this realm doesn't operate on concepts of fairness or justice. It operates on power, fear, and the delicious irony of good intentions leading to eternal damnation."
The remnants of false buildings around them began to shift and flow like liquid, reforming into something far more sinister.Where cozy shops had stood moments before, towering walls of black stone now rose, creating a labyrinth that stretched in every direction.
"A maze," Tobias explained with obvious satisfaction. "Designed to keep lovers separated, to ensure that every moment of hope is followed by crushing despair. He'll hear your voice calling to him, just as you'll hear his, but the walls will shift faster than either of you can navigate them."
"Why?" The question tore from her throat. "Why can't you just take what you wanted and leave him alone?"
"Because what I want has changed." Tobias materialized more solidly than ever before, his form still shifting but recognizably humanoid now. "One dreamwalker was sufficient for my original plans. But a bonded pair? The spiritual energy generated by mates fighting to save each other... it would make me powerful enough to breach the barriers between all realms permanently."
Horror crawled down Kaia's spine as she understood the true scope of his ambition. "You want to destroy the boundaries between dreaming and waking. Everywhere."
"I want to remake reality according to my will. And your precious bear shifter has just given me the key to do it." His laugh echoed off the maze walls, multiplying into a cacophony of malicious joy. "Run, little dreamwalker. Try to find him before I do. But know that every step you take toward each other only feeds my power."
The maze erupted around her, walls shooting skyward and pathways branching in directions that hurt to contemplate. Kaia ran anyway, following the pull of the mate bond that sang between her soul and Elias's even across impossible distances.
"Kaia!" His voice reached her from somewhere that might have been miles away or just around the corner—distance meant nothing in this place. "Where are you?"
"Here!" she called back, taking a left turn that immediately became a right turn, then a spiral staircase that led both up and down simultaneously. "Elias, you have to get out of here! This is a trap!"
"Like hell I'm leaving without you!"
