Page 31 of The Right to Bear Claws (Hollow Oak Mates #6)

ELIAS

C onsciousness returned like sunlight breaking through storm clouds, slow and gentle and impossibly warm.

Elias became aware of several things simultaneously: the soft grass beneath his back, the familiar scent of Moonmirror Lake, and the steady rhythm of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.

But most importantly, he felt Kaia's arms around him, her fingers threading through his hair while she whispered words he couldn't quite make out.

"Hey," he said softly, his voice rough from whatever ordeal they'd just survived. "Did we make it?"

Her violet eyes snapped open, wide with relief and something that looked like wonder. "Elias? Oh god, you're really back. I wasn't sure... when I was putting you back together, some of the pieces were so scattered..."

"Putting me back together?" He sat up carefully, noting that they were surrounded by his family and what looked like half the town. Magnus knelt beside them with tears streaming down his weathered face, while Finn and Thorin flanked them like protective walls.

"Your consciousness was shattered," Kaia explained, helping him find his balance as the dream realm's effects slowly faded from his awareness.

"Tobias hit you with everything he had, tried to scatter your essence across the void.

But our bond... it kept the pieces connected, gave me something to follow when I went looking for you. "

"And Tobias?" Elias asked, though part of him already knew the answer from the profound peace that seemed to have settled over the lake.

"Gone. Not destroyed, but... transformed. Released." Kaia's expression grew thoughtful, tinged with something that looked like awe. "In the end, he chose to let go. Chose healing over hunger, peace over the desperate need to feed on others' pain."

"How?" Magnus asked quietly, his patriarch's voice heavy with the weight of centuries spent protecting their community. "How did you manage to redeem something that ancient, that consumed by its own darkness?"

"I didn't redeem him," Kaia said simply.

"I just showed him what redemption could look like.

Gave him a choice between continuing as he was or letting go of the pain that had trapped him for so long.

" She looked down at Elias with eyes that held depths he was only beginning to understand.

"But I couldn't have done any of it without all of you. "

"What do you mean?" Lucien asked, emerging from the crowd with his usual feline grace. The panther shifter looked exhausted but curious, his green eyes bright with the kind of intellectual fascination that came after surviving something unprecedented.

"The power I used to rewrite his realm, to anchor us back to the waking world.

.. it didn't come from me alone." Kaia gestured toward the assembled crowd.

"It came from every connection I've made here, every moment of acceptance, every act of love freely given.

From Miriam treating me like a daughter, from Twyla's protective meddling, from Maeve's gruff loyalty. "

"From the Vane clan holding the anchor while I was gone," Elias added, understanding beginning to dawn. "From the Night Guard maintaining protective watches, from the Tansley brothers crafting ward stones."

"From an entire community that chose to love a stranger simply because she needed love," Magnus said softly. "That's what defeated him, isn't it? Not power or force, but the kind of connection he'd forgotten was possible."

"Connection he'd never really experienced in the first place," Kaia corrected. "Tobias spent his mortal life being useful but never truly accepted, valued for his gifts but feared for his difference. When Elara betrayed him, it just confirmed what he'd always suspected about himself."

"That he was too different to be loved," Elias said, his bear rumbling with understanding and a trace of ancient sympathy. "Christ, when you put it like that, it's amazing he lasted as long as he did before the isolation drove him mad."

"Which is why what happened tonight matters so much." Varric Thornwell stepped forward, his silver braids gleaming in the moonlight as he studied Kaia with ancient eyes. "You didn't just save yourselves or even our town. You proved that redemption is possible for anyone willing to choose it."

"Even after centuries of feeding on nightmares," Twyla added, appearing at the edge of the crowd with a thermos of what smelled like her famous calming tea. "Even after becoming the very thing that once terrified you."

"Speaking of which," Miriam said, her motherly voice carrying practical concern, "how do you feel, dear? After channeling that much power, after facing down something that ancient..."

Kaia considered the question seriously. "Different," she said finally. "Stronger, but not in the way I expected. Like I finally understand what my gifts are really for."

"And what's that?" Finn asked with typical younger brother directness.

"Healing. Not just individuals, but the spaces between people.

The places where connection should exist but fear has built walls instead.

" She looked around at the faces surrounding them, her expression bright with new understanding.

"I'm not just a dreamwalker. I'm a bridge-builder, someone who helps others find their way back to hope. "

"A guardian of sleep and peace," Elias said, remembering her words from the transformed realm. "Someone who stands between nightmares and the people she loves."

"Exactly." She smiled, and it was like watching the sun rise. "I finally know who I'm meant to be. Not someone running from her gifts, but someone embracing them to help others."

"And us?" he asked, though he thought he already knew the answer. "What are we now that the immediate threat is over?"

"We're whatever we choose to be," she said, leaning down to kiss him with gentle reverence. "Mates, partners, two people who faced the worst kind of darkness and chose love anyway."

"I love you," he said against her lips, the words carrying weight they'd never held before. "You're the bravest person I've ever known."

"I love you too," she whispered back. "For following me into hell, for being willing to sacrifice yourself to keep me safe, for seeing strength in me when I could only see problems."

Around them, the assembled crowd of friends and family began to disperse, giving them space for the private reunion they needed. But not before Magnus cleared his throat with patriarchal authority.

"Tomorrow we plan a proper celebration," he announced. "Tonight, we're all just grateful you're both home safe."

"Home," Kaia repeated, the word carrying wonder as if she was testing how it felt in her mouth. "I like the sound of that."

"Good," Elias said, pulling her down to lie beside him on the grass while they watched the stars wheel overhead. "Because you're stuck with us now. All of us. Hollow Oak doesn't let go of family easily."

"I wouldn't want it to," she said, settling against his side with a contentment. "I've spent my whole life looking for somewhere to belong. I'm not about to give it up now."

As the night faded toward dawn, they lay together by the lake where their story had begun, surrounded by the quiet sounds of a community at peace.

The ancient threat was gone, transformed by compassion into something that could finally rest. The barriers between realms were stable again, protected by the same love that had redeemed a lost soul.

And in a few hours, when the sun rose fully over Hollow Oak, they would begin the next chapter of their story.

But for now, it was enough to simply be alive, be whole, and be exactly where they belonged.