Page 18 of The Right to Bear Claws (Hollow Oak Mates #6)

KAIA

S leep came like drowning.

One moment Kaia was settling into her bed at the inn, pulling Miriam's handmade quilt up to her chin while the protective wind chimes sang softly outside her window.

The next, she was standing in a version of Hollow Oak that existed somewhere between memory and nightmare, where the familiar streets stretched too long and shadows fell at impossible angles.

"You look tired, little dreamwalker."

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, weaving through the dream landscape like smoke. Kaia turned slowly, her bare feet silent on cobblestones that felt more real than the bed she'd left behind.

"Tobias," she said, surprised by how steady her voice sounded. "Right on schedule."

"You say that like you've been expecting me.

" He materialized from the darkness between buildings, his form more solid than she'd ever seen before.

Still shifting, still wrong, but with enough human features that she could almost see what he'd once been.

"Have you been looking forward to our conversations? "

"I've been dreading them, actually."

"How refreshingly honest." His laugh was the sound of wind through empty rooms. "Most dreamwalkers try to pretend they don't enjoy the power I offer them. The ability to shape reality through will alone, to escape the crushing weight of other people's emotions."

"I don't want to escape anything."

"Don't you?" The dream around them shifted, becoming the inn's common room where she'd left Elias just minutes—or hours—ago.

But this version was empty, cold, the warm lighting replaced by harsh shadows that made everything look abandoned.

"You've spent your entire life drowning in other people's fears and nightmares.

Wouldn't it be peaceful to finally be free of all that noise? "

"It's not noise. It's connection."

"It's burden." His eyes, when they briefly solidified, were indeed like burning coals. "You feel everything, don't you? Every resident of this little town, every visitor who passes through. Their anxieties seep into your dreams, their terrors become your own. How exhausting that must be."

Kaia wanted to deny it, but the truth was that he wasn't entirely wrong.

Living in Hollow Oak had been wonderful in so many ways, but it had also opened her up to the collective unconscious of an entire supernatural community.

Dreams layered on dreams, fears bleeding into each other until sometimes she woke unsure which nightmares belonged to her.

"I can take all of that away," Tobias continued, sensing her hesitation. "In my realm, you would be the only consciousness that matters. No more interference from others, no more painful empathy for creatures who can never truly understand what you are."

"What about the people I care about? What happens to them?"

"What people?" The dream shifted again, showing her the town square during a bright afternoon that felt like mockery. "Look around, Kaia. Really look."

She did, and her heart sank. The streets were empty, the shop windows dark, the whole place feeling hollow and abandoned. As if everyone she'd grown to love had simply vanished.

"They were never real, were they?" she whispered. "The connections I thought I'd made, the family I found here... it was all just another dream."

"Not a dream. A trap." Tobias moved closer. "You think that bear shifter truly cares for you? That these people have accepted you out of genuine affection? They tolerate you because you haven't shown them what you're really capable of yet."

"That's not true."

"When have you ever been wanted for who you truly are, rather than who you pretend to be?

" His voice turned almost gentle, like a therapist leading her toward an uncomfortable truth.

"You've spent your entire life wearing masks, hiding your abilities, making yourself smaller so others wouldn't be threatened by your power. "

The words stung because they carried an uncomfortable grain of truth. She had spent years downplaying her gifts, pretending the dreams were just nightmares, convincing herself she was normal when she'd never been anything close to it.

"In my realm," Tobias continued, "you wouldn't need to hide. You could be yourself completely, use your abilities without restraint, shape reality according to your will instead of constantly adapting to other people's limitations."

"And in exchange, I'd be your prisoner forever."

"Prisoner? Or partner?" The shadows around him writhed with what might have been emotion. "I wasn't always what I am now, you know. Once, I was human. A warlock who studied dream magic because I, like you, was different. Alone. Misunderstood by those who claimed to care about me."

Despite herself, Kaia found herself curious. "What happened to you?"

"I fell in love." The admission came out raw, tinged with centuries of regret. "With a woman who promised to understand my gifts, who swore she wasn't afraid of what I could do in the realm of dreams. But when she saw the true extent of my power..."

"She left."

"She tried to have me killed." The dream around them darkened, becoming a twisted version of some ancient study filled with books and arcane instruments.

"Convinced the local authorities that I was dangerous, that my abilities were a threat to everyone around me.

So I fled into the dream realm, thinking it would be temporary.

A place to hide until the persecution passed. "

"But you got trapped."

"I chose to stay," he corrected. "At first. The dream realm was peaceful, free from judgment and fear and the constant need to prove I wasn't the monster they claimed I was. But over time, the isolation... it changed me. Warped me into something that could only exist between worlds."

Kaia felt a flicker of sympathy despite herself. The story was too specific, too painful to be entirely fabricated. "I'm sorry. That must have been horrible."

"It was. But it doesn't have to be horrible for you.

" His form became more human-like, showing her glimpses of what he might have looked once.

Tall, dark-haired, with intelligent eyes that held centuries of loneliness.

"I've learned to shape the dream realm into anything I want it to be.

Paradise, if you wish. A place where your abilities are celebrated rather than feared, where you'll never again have to worry about hurting someone you care about. "

"Because there won't be anyone else to hurt."

"Because there won't be anyone else to disappoint you.

" The dream shifted one more time, showing her a beautiful garden that existed nowhere in the physical world.

Flowers that bloomed in impossible colors, trees that sang with voices like wind chimes, streams that flowed upward toward stars that pulsed with their own light.

"I'm offering you forever, Kaia. Eternity in a realm where you have complete control, where your gifts are valued instead of tolerated. "

"And what do you get out of it?"

"Companionship. Someone who understands what it\ is to be different, to carry power that sets you apart from ordinary people.

" His voice grew softer, almost pleading.

"I've been alone for so long. Centuries of solitude, watching the world change through other people's dreams but never being part of it. You could end that loneliness."

"By giving up my own life."

"By choosing a better one. Look around you, Kaia. Really look at what you're clinging to."

The garden faded, replaced by harsh reality.

The inn room where she slept, Elias collapsed in the chair beside her bed where he'd been keeping watch.

But in this version of events, he looked exhausted, defeated, aged by the constant stress of protecting someone who brought nothing but danger to his life.

"He's killing himself trying to save you," Tobias whispered. "How long before he realizes you're not worth the effort? How long before all of them decide you're more trouble than you're worth?"

"They wouldn't do that."

"Everyone does, eventually. I learned that lesson centuries ago, and you'll learn it too. The only difference is whether you accept my offer before they abandon you, or after."

"No." The word came out stronger than she felt. "You're wrong about them. About Elias, about Miriam, about everyone in Hollow Oak. They care about me."

"Do they? Or do they simply pity you?"

The question hit something tender and raw in her chest. The doubt she'd been carrying since arriving in Hollow Oak, the constant fear that she was imposing on people who were too kind to tell her to leave.

"I know what it's like," Tobias continued, sensing her vulnerability. "To be grateful for scraps of attention, to convince yourself that tolerance equals affection. But deep down, you know the truth. You're different, Kaia. Too different for ordinary people to truly love."

"Elias loves me." The words came out desperate, like a prayer. "He told me so."

"He told you what you needed to hear to keep you calm. But love requires understanding, and how can he understand what he's never experienced? How can someone who's never walked in dreams comprehend what it's like to see the world through your eyes?"

The doubt crept in despite her best efforts to resist it. Elias was wonderful, patient, protective—but Tobias was right about one thing. He'd never experienced the weight of other people's nightmares, never felt the crushing responsibility of having power over the realm of dreams.

"I understand," Tobias said softly. "I've lived it. To be loved for the person others think you are, rather than the person you truly are. Come with me, willingly, and you'll never have to hide again."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you'll learn the hard way that love has limits. That even the most patient protector eventually grows tired of fighting battles for someone who brings nothing but trouble to their life."

The dream garden returned, beautiful and serene and utterly empty of everyone she'd grown to care about.

For a moment, Kaia let herself imagine what it would be like.

No more nightmares that weren't her own, no more fear of hurting people through her abilities, no more constant anxiety about being too much for someone to handle.

It would be peaceful. Lonely, but peaceful.

But then she thought of Miriam's kind eyes, full of maternal love she'd never experienced before. Twyla's infectious laughter and determination to include her in every aspect of community life. And everything about how Elias made her feel.

"You're wrong," she said quietly. "About all of it. They don't love me because they pity me or because they don't understand what I am. They love me because they see something worth loving, something that has nothing to do with my abilities."

"Pretty words. But words are easy. Actions reveal truth." Tobias's form began to lose cohesion, becoming shadows and smoke again. "We'll see how long their love lasts when the real tests come. When protecting you requires genuine sacrifice instead of pretty gestures."

"We will see. But I'm not going with you, Tobias. Not willingly, not ever."

"Oh, my dear little dreamwalker." His laughter was the sound of breaking glass. "Who said anything about willingly?"

The dream shattered like a window struck by stone, and Kaia jolted awake with a scream caught in her throat. Her room was dark, quiet, normal—but she could still feel Tobias's presence lingering around her consciousness like smoke that wouldn't clear.

And she realized with growing horror that this time, waking up hadn't broken his hold on her completely.

He was still there, whispering at the edges of her mind, and she was no longer entirely sure where the dream ended and reality began.