Page 29 of The Right to Bear Claws (Hollow Oak Mates #6)

ELIAS

T he shadow-cocoon was coming apart like tissue paper in a hurricane.

Elias watched in fascination and growing alarm as cracks of golden light spread across the walls of Tobias's prison, each fracture releasing centuries of compressed anguish into the surrounding dream realm.

The entire structure groaned under the weight of emotions too long denied, and he could feel the foundation of the nightmare domain beginning to buckle.

"Kaia," he called, his voice cutting through the chaos as she remained locked in communion with Tobias's memories. "Whatever you're doing, it's working, but this whole place is about to come down."

She didn't respond, too deep in the ancient warlock's past to hear him.

Through their bond, Elias could feel echoes of what she was experiencing: centuries of pain, betrayal, and the slow corruption of a soul that had once tried to heal the world.

But he could also feel something else building in the realm around them, something desperate and dangerous.

"I will not be unmade," Tobias's voice roared from everywhere at once, the words carrying such force that several nearby memory-fragments shattered like glass. "I am what I chose to become. I am what love made me. And I will not be destroyed by hope I can no longer feel."

The golden light that had been seeping through the cracks suddenly blazed brighter, and Elias realized with horror that Tobias wasn't trying to heal or redeem himself. He was preparing to drag everything down with him in a final act of spite.

"Kaia, we need to go," Elias said urgently, moving toward her still form. "Right now."

But even as he spoke, the realm around them began to collapse in earnest. Not the gradual crumbling he'd expected, but a catastrophic implosion as Tobias chose destruction over redemption.

Walls of crystallized nightmare dissolved into chaos, and Elias felt the pull of something vast and hungry trying to drag them deeper into whatever void lay at the center of the ancient warlock's despair.

"If I cannot have peace," Tobias snarled, his voice now coming from the collapsing structure itself, "then no one will have it. If I cannot be redeemed, then redemption itself is a lie that deserves to die."

Kaia's eyes snapped open, violet depths wide with shock and grief. "He's going to destroy everything," she gasped. "Centuries of accumulated pain and power, all released at once. It'll tear holes in the barriers between realms."

"Can you get us out of here?"

"I can try." She scrambled to her feet, her dreamwalker abilities flaring as she reached out with her consciousness to find a path back to the waking world. "But Elias, if this realm collapses while we're still in it..."

"We'll be trapped in the void between sleeping and waking forever," he finished grimly. "I know. That's why we're not going to let that happen."

Working together, they began to weave a pathway through the chaos, using their combined will to create a bridge between Tobias's collapsing domain and the realm of physical existence.

It was exhausting work, requiring absolute focus while reality crumbled around them, but gradually Elias could feel the pull of his own body, still anchored by his clan beside Moonmirror Lake.

"There," Kaia said, pointing toward a corridor of steady light that led through the destruction. "That's our way home."

They ran toward it hand in hand, dodging falling debris made of crystallized screams and nightmare fragments sharp enough to cut consciousness itself. Behind them, Tobias's voice rose to a howl of rage and despair that made the very air tremble.

"You think you understand suffering?" he roared. "You think your little love story proves that redemption is possible? Then suffer as I have suffered. Know isolation as I have known it. Experience the truth that love is just another word for inevitable betrayal."

The pathway ahead of them suddenly began to narrow, squeezed by Tobias's will as he focused the last of his power on preventing their escape. But worse than that, Elias could feel something reaching for Kaia specifically, trying to wrap around her consciousness like chains.

"He's trying to drag me down with him," she said, her steps faltering as the entity's influence pressed against her mind. "I can feel him pulling at the part of me that understands his pain, trying to use my empathy against me."

"Fight it," Elias said fiercely, tightening his grip on her hand. "Remember what's real. Remember what's waiting for us back home."

"I'm trying, but he's so strong, and there's part of me that thinks maybe he's right. Maybe I am naive to believe in redemption. Maybe some things are too broken to be fixed."

The doubt in her voice sent ice through Elias's veins. This was how Tobias had survived for centuries, how he'd fed and grown strong—by convincing others that hope was foolishness, that love was just a pretty lie people told themselves before the inevitable betrayal.

"Don't listen to him," Elias said urgently. "You've seen his memories, felt his pain, but that doesn't mean his conclusions are right. He chose isolation, chose bitterness, chose to feed on fear instead of seeking healing. Those were his choices, not the only possible responses to trauma."

"Were they choices, though? Or was that just what the pain made inevitable?" Kaia's steps slowed further, and Elias could see the pathway ahead beginning to fade as her certainty wavered. "Maybe redemption only works in stories. Maybe in reality, some damage is permanent."

"Kaia, look at me." Elias stopped running and turned to face her fully, his silver eyes blazing with absolute conviction.

"You are not him. Your trauma didn't turn you into a monster, it turned you into someone who fights to protect others.

Your pain didn't make you cruel, it made you compassionate. "

"But what if?—"

"No what-ifs. No maybe. You chose to stay and fight for Hollow Oak instead of running.

You chose to trust people who cared about you instead of assuming they'd betray you.

You chose love over fear, hope over despair, again and again.

" His voice grew fierce with protective determination.

"And I choose you. Not because you're perfect, but because you're brave enough to keep choosing light even when the darkness feels overwhelming. "

For a moment, her violet eyes cleared, and the pathway ahead began to solidify again. But then Tobias made his final, desperate play.

"If she will not come willingly," the ancient warlock snarled, "then she will come in pieces."

The attack came from all directions at once, tendrils of pure malice and despair reaching for Kaia's consciousness with the intent to shred it beyond repair.

Elias saw them coming, felt his mate's terror as she realized what was about to happen, and made a choice that came as naturally as breathing.

He threw himself between Kaia and the attack, using his own consciousness as a shield while his bear's roar of protective fury echoed through the collapsing realm.

"Elias, no!" Kaia screamed, but it was too late.

The tendrils meant for her struck him instead, and Elias felt his awareness scatter like leaves in a hurricane.

Pain beyond description tore through his mind as Tobias's concentrated hatred and despair tried to find purchase in his soul.

But even as his consciousness began to fragment, one thought remained crystal clear.

She's safe. Whatever happens to me, she's safe.

"You fool," Tobias raged. "You've gained nothing but your own destruction. She'll still be trapped here when this realm collapses. You've simply ensured you'll both die together instead of allowing me the satisfaction of her despair."

But Elias, even with his awareness scattered across multiple fragments, could still feel his clan's anchor pulling at him from the waking world. Could still sense the pathway Kaia had created, now blazing brighter than ever as his sacrifice fed power into their escape route.

"Get out of here," he managed to say, though he wasn't sure if the words reached her through the chaos. "The pathway's stable now. Go home."

"I'm not leaving without you!"

"You have to. The realm's collapsing, and I can't... I can't hold myself together much longer.

" Already he could feel parts of his consciousness beginning to drift away, scattered by the force of Tobias's attack.

"Go, Kaia. Live. Be happy. Remember that some love stories have happy endings, even if this one doesn't."

"This one does too," she said fiercely, and through their bond he felt her reaching for him, trying to gather his scattered awareness back together through sheer force of will. "I won't let you fade away. I won't let him win."

But even as she spoke, Elias could feel the void opening beneath them, ready to swallow what remained of his consciousness along with the collapsing remnants of Tobias's domain. The pathway home still blazed with possibility, but it was fading fast as the realm's destruction reached critical mass.

In moments, they would both be lost forever unless one of them made an impossible choice.

And Elias had already made his.