Kieran's POV
I felt Mira dying through our bond.
One moment I was pacing through Shadowveil Forest in my cursed wolf form, replaying our Dreamscape conversation. The next, pain exploded through my chest like someone had driven a silver knife into my heart.
Mira.
I threw back my head and howled—a sound of pure anguish that echoed through the entire forest. Every wolf within miles would hear it. Every wolf would know their king was in agony.
But I didn't care about hiding anymore.
Mira was dying, and I was trapped in this useless wolf body, unable to help her.
I felt her fear through the bond. Felt the poison spreading through her veins like ice. Felt her trying to fight it, her Bloodbane magic flaring desperately as her body shut down.
No. No, no, no.
I couldn't lose her. Not now. Not after seven years of falling in love with her through dreams. Not after finally having hope that maybe—maybe—we could find another way.
I had to reach her.
I closed my eyes and did something I'd never attempted before. Instead of waiting for sleep to pull me into the Dreamscape, I forced my way in. I grabbed onto our bond—that glowing thread connecting us—and yanked myself toward her with everything I had.
The world twisted.
Pain seared through my wolf form as I essentially ripped my consciousness free and dove into the Dreamscape while still awake. It felt like being torn in half.
But it worked.
I materialized in our forest clearing in human form, gasping. And there—collapsed on the silver grass—was Mira.
Purple veins crawled across her skin. Her eyes were closed. She wasn't breathing.
"MIRA!" I dropped to my knees beside her, pulling her into my arms. "No, please, wake up. Please."
Her head lolled against my shoulder. In the physical world, the poison was killing her. Here in the Dreamscape, her spirit was already slipping away.
I pressed my forehead to hers, desperate. "Don't leave me. Please don't leave me."
For seven years, she'd been my only connection to humanity. My only reason to keep fighting. Every night in these dreams, she'd made me laugh, made me hope, made me feel like a man instead of a monster.
I loved her.
And I was about to watch her die because I was too weak, too cursed, too trapped to save her.
"I'm sorry," I whispered against her hair. "I'm so sorry. You came to help me, and all I did was get you killed."
Then I felt it—a tiny flutter in our bond. Like a heartbeat fighting to restart.
Her Bloodbane magic was trying to heal her, but it wasn't strong enough. The poison Drake used was specifically designed to kill her, to force the death ritual.
But our mate bond was stronger than any poison.
I'd completed the bond last night when I thought I might lose her to Drake's plans. It linked our life forces together permanently. Which meant...
I could share my strength with her.
"Hold on," I told her unconscious form. "Just hold on."
I closed my eyes and opened the bond completely—something I'd been afraid to do because it would hurt her, would flood her with seven years of my pain and loneliness and wolf instincts.
But if I didn't do it, she'd die anyway.
Power flowed from me into her. My strength. My healing. Everything I had.
The purple veins on her skin began to fade.
Her chest hitched—one breath, then another.
"That's it," I urged. "Come back to me. Come on, Mira."
Her eyes fluttered open—those beautiful brown eyes I'd memorized through years of dreams.
"Kieran?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
Relief crashed through me so hard I nearly collapsed. "I'm here. I've got you."
"The poison—Drake poisoned me—"
"I know. I felt it through our bond." I helped her sit up, keeping my arms around her. "Your magic is fighting it, but you need to stay here in the Dreamscape while your body heals. Don't go back yet."
She leaned against me, trembling. "He said he wasn't going to wait. He's going to force the death ritual tonight."
Rage burned through me—hot and vicious. Drake. My best friend. My beta. The wolf I'd trusted with everything.
He'd murdered Selene. Framed me. Let me rot in this curse for seven years. And now he was trying to kill the woman I loved.
"He won't succeed," I growled. "Elias and Ash will find you. They'll stop him."
"But what if they don't? What if the poison—"
"Then I'll pull you into the Dreamscape and keep you here forever if I have to." I cupped her face in my hands, making her look at me. "You're not dying tonight. I won't allow it."
A weak smile touched her lips. "Pretty bold for a cursed wolf who can't even leave the forest."
"I'd burn down the whole kingdom to keep you safe."
Her smile faded. "Kieran, when you opened the bond... I felt everything. Seven years of pain. Of being trapped. Of watching your kingdom fall apart while you couldn't do anything to stop it."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you—"
"You didn't hurt me." She touched my chest, right over my heart. "You showed me who you really are. And I'm not afraid anymore."
"Not afraid of what?"
"Of this. Of us. Of what I'm feeling." She took a shaky breath. "I've been having dreams about you since I was seventeen. Seven years of talking to you every night, learning your voice, your laugh, your fears. I told myself it wasn't real. That I was just lonely and making things up."
"Mira—"
"But it was real. You're real. And I'm in love with you."
The words hit me like a physical blow. In seven years of dreaming together, we'd never said it out loud. We'd danced around it, implied it, showed it through actions. But we'd never been brave enough to speak the truth.
Until now.
"I've loved you since the first night you appeared in my dreams," I said roughly. "When you were seventeen and so full of fire and questions. I tried to push you away. Tried to scare you off because I knew this day would come—the day the curse would try to force you to sacrifice yourself for me."
"I'm not sacrificing myself."
"Good. Because I'd rather stay cursed forever than live in a world without you in it."
She laughed—a broken sound. "That's the most romantic and depressing thing anyone's ever said to me."
I pulled her closer, breathing in her scent. Even here in the Dreamscape, she smelled like vanilla and old books and home.
"We're going to find another way," I promised. "We'll expose Drake. Break the curse without you dying. And then—"
"And then what?"
"And then I'm going to court you properly. Take you on dates. Show you my kingdom when it's not falling apart. Spend every night with you in reality instead of just dreams."
She tilted her head back to look at me. "I'd like that."
I kissed her then—our first real kiss, even if it was happening in a dream. She melted against me, and for a moment, everything else faded away. The curse. The poison. Drake's betrayal.
It was just us.
When we finally pulled apart, she was smiling. The purple veins had disappeared completely from her skin.
"I think your magic healed me," she said, touching her throat where the poison had burned worst.
"Our magic," I corrected. "The bond works both ways."
She stood, pulling me to my feet. "Then let's use it. If we're connected, maybe I can help you break free from—"
She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes going wide.
"Mira? What's wrong?"
"The Dreamscape. It's changing."
I looked around and my blood ran cold.
The silver forest was darkening. The trees were twisting into shadows. And purple fire—Morgana's fire—was spreading across the ground toward us.
"She's found us," I breathed. "Morgana's in the Dreamscape."
A woman's laugh echoed through the corrupted forest. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice you interfering with my poison, King Kieran?"
Morgana materialized from the purple flames—tall, beautiful, and terrifying.
"The death ritual happens tonight," she said coldly. "Whether the Bloodbane is willing or not. And if you try to stop me..." She raised her hand, and Drake appeared beside her—his spirit form grinning viciously. "Well, I've already ensured your beta has control of your Keep. Your wolves. Your kingdom. You've already lost, Kieran. You just don't know it yet."
The Dreamscape shattered like glass.
I felt Mira being ripped away from me, yanked back into the physical world.
"NO!" I reached for her, but it was too late.
I snapped back into my wolf body in Shadowveil Forest, howling in fury and helplessness.
And through our bond, I felt Mira wake up—not in Kieran's chambers where she'd fallen asleep.
She was in the dungeon.
Chained with silver.
And the death ritual had already begun.