Page 24 of The Right to Bear Claws (Hollow Oak Mates #6)

KAIA

T he 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!"

Despite everything, his stubborn refusal to abandon her made warmth bloom in her chest. This was the man who'd carved wind chimes to help her sleep, who'd held her through nightmares without asking for explanations.

Of course he'd followed her into a realm of pure nightmare—not because he was reckless, but because leaving her to fight alone was simply incomprehensible to him.

"The walls keep moving!" she shouted, pressing her hand against the cold stone as if she could somehow reach through to touch him. "Every time I think I'm getting closer, the path changes!"

"Then stop chasing the path," his voice came back, closer now but still separated by the maze's twisted geometry. "In dreams, intention matters more than direction. Don't follow the walls, follow what you know is real."

"What's real in a place made of nightmares?"

"Us." The simple word carried absolute conviction. "What we feel for each other, what we've built together. That's real enough to cut through any illusion."

Kaia closed her eyes, letting the mate bond guide her instead of her physical senses. The pull was stronger now, more urgent, and when she opened her eyes again, she could see golden light threading through the maze like a trail designed just for her.

The path led through corridors that tried to show her fears—doorways opening onto scenes of Elias dying, burning, screaming her name in agony. But his voice continued to reach her, steady and sure, reminding her that none of Tobias's projections could touch what they'd actually shared.

"Remember the night by the lake when I told you about mate bonds?" he called. "Remember what you said about feeling like you'd been wandering your whole life until you found home?"

"I remember," she called back, warmth spreading through her chest at the memory. "You said that was the bond."

"Wrong. The bond is what let me recognize what was already there. You chose Hollow Oak, chose me, chose all of us long before you understood why. Your heart knew where you belonged."

The golden thread of connection blazed brighter, cutting through Tobias's illusions like sunlight through fog. Kaia could feel her power responding to the truth in his words, her dreamwalking abilities strengthening with each step toward genuine memory instead of manufactured fear.

"The maze is failing," she realized aloud. "He's losing control."

"Then we'd better find each other fast," Elias said, and suddenly he was there—stepping around a corner that had been solid wall moments before, silver eyes blazing with desperate relief.

"You beautiful, stubborn idiot," she said, launching herself into his arms with enough force to stagger him. "What were you thinking, following me into this place?"

"I was thinking my mate was in trouble and needed backup," he said against her hair, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe. "I was thinking I'd rather face whatever hell you're fighting than spend another minute wondering if you were fighting it alone."

"If Tobias claims you too?—"

"He won't." Elias pulled back enough to meet her eyes, his expression fierce with certainty. "Because I'm not here out of desperation or fear. I'm here because I love you, because you belong with me, and because some things are worth risking everything for."

"Even your soul?"

"Especially my soul. What good is it without yours anyway?"

The maze around them shuddered, walls beginning to crack as Tobias's construction wavered under the assault of their connection. But Kaia could feel the entity's rage building, his power coalescing for a final, desperate attack.

"He's not giving up," she warned. "This was all part of his plan—to get both of us here, to use our bond as a source of power."

"Then we'd better make sure he gets more than he bargained for." Elias's hand found hers, their fingers intertwining with the kind of perfect fit that spoke to destiny. "How do we fight something that exists in the realm of consciousness?"

"With consciousness. With will. With the absolute certainty that what we have is stronger than anything he can throw at us." Kaia squeezed his hand, drawing strength from his solid presence beside her. "But Elias, if this goes wrong?—"

"It won't."

"If it does?—"

"It won't because we won't let it." His bear's protective growl rumbled beneath his words. "We're going home, Kaia. Both of us, together. And then I'm claiming you properly so that no nightmare entity ever tries this again."

Despite everything, she laughed. "Is this really the time for claiming bond negotiations?"

"This is exactly the time. I want you to have something to look forward to, something real and good waiting on the other side of this fight."

The maze gave one final shudder and collapsed entirely, leaving them standing in an empty void where Tobias's presence pressed against them.

But instead of feeling trapped, Kaia felt anchored—connected to the waking world through Elias's presence, connected to hope through the future he promised, connected to her own power through the love that had guided them both into this nightmare realm.

"Ready?" she asked, feeling her dreamwalker abilities stir in response to their combined will.

"Ready," he confirmed, his bear's strength blending with her gift to create something neither of them could have achieved alone.

The final battle was about to begin.