Page 8 of The Right to Bear Claws (Hollow Oak Mates #6)

KAIA

T he dreams started getting teeth three days after Elias gave her the anchor stone.

Kaia pressed her fingers against the pendant's warm surface as she sat in the inn's kitchen, watching Miriam prepare what had become their nightly ritual of calming tea.

The past week had fallen into a comfortable routine: mornings helping around the inn, afternoons exploring Hollow Oak with various residents eager to show her their corner of the magical town, evenings spent in the common room with whatever combination of locals had decided she needed company.

It should have been peaceful. It would have been, if not for the way her dreams were evolving.

"Another rough night?" Miriam asked gently, setting a steaming mug in front of her. The tea smelled different tonight, more complex. Lavender and chamomile, but underneath something sharper, more protective.

"They're getting more specific," Kaia admitted, wrapping her hands around the ceramic warmth. "Less random fear, more... focused. Like someone's trying to show me something specific."

"What kind of something?"

Kaia hesitated, reluctant to voice the images that had been plaguing her sleep. "Halloween night. The town square, but everything's wrong. People are screaming, running from shadows that move like they're alive. And there's this voice calling my name, over and over."

Miriam's expression grew troubled. "The same voice every time?"

"Yeah. Deep, male, but... hollow. Like it's coming from somewhere far away." Kaia shivered despite the kitchen's warmth. "It knows things about me. Things I don't even remember about myself."

The older woman reached across the small table, covering Kaia's hand with her own. "You don't have to face this alone, dear. The whole town's invested in keeping you safe now."

That was certainly true. Over the past week, Kaia had been overwhelmed by the casual way Hollow Oak's residents had absorbed her into their daily lives.

Twyla had started saving her a specific table at the café, claiming her fae intuition said Kaia needed to sit where she could see both entrances.

The Tansley brothers had taken to stopping by the inn with small protective charms, each one crafted specifically for her needs.

Even Maeve had made it a point to check in, usually with gruff advice about not letting stubbornness get in the way of accepting help.

But it was Elias who'd become her constant, steady presence through the increasingly difficult nights.

"He's been sleeping in the chair again, hasn't he?" Miriam asked, following her gaze toward the common room where Elias had taken up his unofficial post.

Heat crept up Kaia's neck. "I told him he doesn't have to do that. The inn has perfectly good guest rooms."

"And what did he say?"

"That he sleeps better knowing I'm safe." The memory of his quiet confession sent warmth spreading through her. "I don't understand why he cares so much. We barely know each other."

Miriam's smile held secrets. "Sometimes the heart knows things the mind hasn't figured out yet. And sometimes, when you've been waiting for something without realizing it, recognition comes fast."

Curious that Miriam had almost repeated Maeve, Kaia went to ask what that meant, but then heavy footsteps announced Elias's arrival in the kitchen.

He looked tired, silver eyes shadowed with the same exhaustion that had been following her around.

Guilt twisted in her stomach at the realization that her problems were costing him sleep too.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, settling into the chair beside her with the careful movements of someone who'd been sleeping in furniture not designed for six-foot-six frames.

"Guilty," she said honestly. "You can't keep sleeping in that chair, Elias. You'll wreck your back."

"My back's fine." He accepted the mug of tea Miriam offered with a grateful nod. "Besides, I sleep better knowing you're close by."

She forced herself not to blush. "Still," she said, fighting the urge to reach for his hand. "It's not fair to you."

"Kaia." His voice carried gentle firmness. "Nothing about this situation is fair. But that doesn't mean we stop looking out for each other."

The way he said 'each other' made her stomach flutter with dangerous hope. Like they were a team, partners facing something together instead of her being a burden he'd chosen to shoulder.

"The dreams are getting more vivid," she said quietly. "More detailed. I think... I think something's going to happen on Halloween night."

Elias's jaw tightened. "What kind of something?"

"I don't know exactly. But it's bad. Really bad.

" She closed her eyes, trying to organize the fragments of prophetic vision that had been haunting her sleep.

"There's panic in the streets, people running from something I can't quite see.

And there's this voice that keeps calling to me, trying to convince me to stop fighting whatever's coming. "

"Over my dead body," Elias said with quiet ferocity.

The protective growl in his voice sent a thrill through her. God, when had she started finding his intensity so attractive? When had the way he looked at her like she was precious and worth defending become something she craved?

"I should probably try to get some sleep," she said, standing before her thoughts could wander into dangerous territory. "Maybe tonight will be better."

But even as she said it, Kaia could feel the familiar tug of approaching dreams, darker and more insistent than usual.

The anchor stone pulsed against her throat, a warm reminder of the protection surrounding her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was hunting her was getting stronger.

Sleep brought no peace.

The dream started normally enough—wandering through a version of Hollow Oak that was both familiar and wrong, where the streets stretched longer than they should and shadows fell at impossible angles.

But instead of the usual random nightmare imagery, Kaia found herself walking with purpose toward the town square, drawn by a compulsion she couldn't resist.

The square was empty except for a single figure standing beneath the old oak tree that gave the town its name.

Male, tall, but his features shifted and blurred whenever she tried to focus on them directly.

When he spoke, his voice carried the hollow quality she'd been hearing in her dreams for days.

"Kaia Monroe." The sound of her name on his lips made her skin crawl. "You've been running from me for so long. Aren't you tired of fighting the inevitable?"

"Who are you?" she asked, surprised to find her voice steady in the dream. "What do you want from me?"

"I want what I've always wanted. What you promised me, before you chose to forget.

" The figure stepped closer, and she caught glimpses of burning eyes in a face made of shifting shadows.

"You were supposed to come willingly. Instead, you ran to this sanctuary, surrounded yourself with protectors who can't help you where it matters. "

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't you?" The thing that called itself by a name she couldn't quite remember tilted its head. "Sweet Kaia, wandering the world alone, convinced she didn't belong anywhere. I offered you purpose, power, a place where your gifts would be appreciated instead of feared. And you agreed."

"I would never?—"

"Wouldn't you?" The voice turned mocking.

"A frightened girl, desperate to understand why she was different, why she could walk through dreams when others could only sleep through them.

I gave you knowledge, showed you how to use your abilities.

In exchange, you promised to serve as my anchor to the waking world. "

The words triggered flashes of memory she'd thought were dreams—a younger version of herself, desperate and alone, making bargains she didn't understand with a voice that promised answers to all her questions.

"I was a child," she whispered, horror creeping through her consciousness. "I didn't know what I was agreeing to."

"A promise is a promise, regardless of age.

" The shadow-figure began to circle her, and with each step, the dream landscape grew darker.

"You've delayed long enough, gathered enough strength to serve my purposes.

On Halloween night, when the barriers between worlds grow thin, you'll fulfill your oath. "

"No." Kaia straightened, drawing on reserves of courage she didn't know she possessed. "I choose who I serve, and it's not you."

"You think your little charms will protect you? Your bear shifter guardian?" The thing laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "He can't follow you here, into the realm where I am strongest. Here, you belong to me."

The dream square began to shift and writhe, buildings melting into impossible geometries as the creature's presence grew stronger.

But instead of the paralyzing fear she'd felt in previous nightmares, Kaia found herself thinking of Elias's steady strength, Miriam's maternal protection, the way Twyla's eyes sparkled with mischief and care.

"You're wrong," she said firmly. "I don't belong to you. I belong with them, in Hollow Oak, with people who care about me without asking for anything in return."

"We'll see about that." The shadow-thing's voice turned vicious. "When Halloween comes, you'll remember who you really are. And you'll come to me willingly, or watch everyone you've grown to care about suffer the consequences."

The dream shattered like glass, sending Kaia tumbling back toward consciousness with a scream trapped in her throat. She jerked awake in her inn room bed, heart hammering and skin slick with cold sweat, the echo of hollow laughter still ringing in her ears.

But she wasn't alone.

Strong arms encircled her immediately, pulling her against a chest that smelled like cedar and safety. Elias's voice rumbled against her ear, low and soothing, anchoring her to the waking world with the solid reality of his presence.

"I've got you," he murmured, one hand stroking her hair while the other rubbed gentle circles against her back. "You're safe. It was just a dream."

"Not just a dream," she gasped, clinging to his flannel shirt like a lifeline. "It was real. He was real. And he knows about Halloween, about the town, about you."

Elias's arms tightened around her, and she felt rather than heard the protective growl that vibrated through his chest. "Tell me everything."

So she did, pouring out the terrifying encounter while he held her steady, never once making her feel foolish or hysterical. By the time she finished, pale morning light was creeping through her window, and she realized they'd spent the entire night talking through her fears.

"I made some kind of bargain when I was young," she said finally, exhaustion making her voice small. "I don't remember all the details, but I promised to serve as his anchor to the physical world. And now he's coming to collect."

"Whatever you promised him, you were a child. It doesn't count."

"What if it does? What if on Halloween night, I can't fight him anymore?"

Elias pulled back enough to meet her eyes, silver gaze fierce with determination. "Then we make sure you're not fighting alone. Hollow Oak protects its own, Kaia. All of us, together, against whatever's coming."

The conviction in his voice made her believe, for the first time since the nightmares began, that maybe she really could win this fight. That maybe, surrounded by people who cared about her, she was stronger than the shadows trying to claim her.

"Thank you," she whispered, meaning it more than any words she'd ever spoken. "For staying. For believing me. For making me feel like I'm worth protecting."

"You are worth protecting." His thumb brushed across her cheek, wiping away tears she hadn't realized were falling. "You're worth everything, Kaia Monroe. Don't ever let anyone tell you different."

As dawn broke fully over Hollow Oak, chasing away the last shadows of her nightmare, Kaia allowed herself to believe it might be true.