Chapter 81 The Dreaming Ground
Sable's POV
When I woke up and the room was soft and golden, sunlight pouring through gauzy curtains. I could smell coffee, faint jasmine, and the ocean. The breeze that drifted through the open window carried salt and warmth.
I sat up, blinking. I was in bed. My bed. Except it wasn’t.
The sheets were silk, cream and gold. The walls glowed faintly, alive with morning light. Everything looked like it had been painted from memory.
And then I saw him.
Kier stood by the balcony doors, his back to me, shirt sleeves rolled to his forearms, tie loose around his neck. He looked out at the water like it was speaking to him, the light sliding over his shoulders.
“Morning,” I said softly, my voice small, unsure.
He turned. That slow, devastating half-smile curved his mouth. “You’re up.”
Something in my chest loosened. “Yeah… I guess I am.”
He walked toward me, each step measured, familiar. The scent of him—cedar and rain—wrapped around me before he even touched me. When his hand brushed my cheek, I almost leaned into it.
“You scared me,” he said.
I frowned. “Why?”
“You were gone too long.” His thumb traced the edge of my jaw, slow, reverent. “Don’t do that again.”
“I didn’t go anywhere,” I said, though even as I said it, the words didn’t sound right. The edges of the room trembled, and the sunlight shifted, dimming.
Kier tilted his head. “Didn’t you?”
The air thickened. The scent of salt vanished, replaced by rust.
I blinked, and he wasn’t standing anymore. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his tie gone, his sleeves rolled higher. His hands were darker—wet, smeared red.
“Kier?”
He looked down at them. “You always make me fight for you.”
I stared at the blood. “What happened?”
“You tell me.”
The sheets were no longer cream—they were gray, rough, like concrete dust. The room folded in on itself, colors bleeding away until everything turned the hue of ash.
Behind Kier, the window wasn’t a window anymore. It was a warehouse wall, cracked and rusted, the light flickering above him.
My stomach twisted. I knew this place.
The chains. The concrete. The smell.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “No, I’m not here.”
Kier’s eyes softened, but his expression didn’t change. “Then where are you, Sable?”
I looked down, expecting the soft blanket—but my wrists were bound again. Cold silver cut into my skin. My wolf stirred, but she was sluggish.
The floor trembled beneath me. The walls bled shadow.
Sam’s voice echoed faintly, as if from behind the wall. I saved you.
“No,” I said, louder this time. “You took me.”
Kier tilted his head, watching me. “Who took you?”
“Sam,” I said. “It was Sam.”
Kier’s eyes darkened. “Then why are you still here with him?”
“I—” I looked around. The warehouse flickered, dissolving into something else. The chains melted into water, cool and black. I was standing now, waist-deep in a river that glowed faintly under a pale moon. The sound of wolves howling rolled across the surface like wind.
Kier was on the far bank now, barefoot, his eyes burning into me. “Come to me.”
The water churned around me. “It’s too deep.”
He extended his hand. “You’ve crossed worse.”
I hesitated. My wolf moved beneath my skin, pressing forward, restless. I took one step, then another. The current grew stronger, pulling at me, dragging me down.
“Don’t stop,” Kier said. His voice wasn’t just a sound—it was a pull, deep in my bones.
I pushed forward until I could almost reach him. His hand stretched out, fingers brushing mine. For a moment, warmth shot through me. The mate bond flared—real, wild, alive.
But then—
A voice whispered from the water. You don’t belong to him.
The current surged, slamming into me. I lost my footing. The water swallowed me whole.
Cold exploded through my chest. The surface vanished, replaced by darkness and the echo of my own heartbeat.
Kier’s voice called my name, distant now, warped by the current.
Then Sam’s face appeared in the dark, his glasses cracked, his smile wrong. “I told you I’d take care of you,” he said.
The world rippled. The water turned to glass.
He was sitting in front of me now, same warehouse, same chains. “You just won’t see it,” he murmured. “He’ll destroy you.”
“Get away from me.”
He leaned closer. “He already did.”
The floor beneath me cracked. Through the cracks, I saw fire. Kier the night of the confrontation. The look in his eyes when I walked in and saw him with Liora.
The pain hit like claws under my ribs.
My wolf whimpered.
Sam smiled. “See?”
The sound of breaking glass rang out, and suddenly Kier was there again, pulling me away from Sam, his grip hard and desperate.
“Wake up,” he said, voice sharp, commanding. “Now, Sable.”
The fire roared higher, painting his face in gold and shadow. “Wake up!”
“I can’t,” I said. My voice cracked. “It hurts.”
His eyes burned brighter, molten. “Then fight.”
I shook my head, choking on the air. “I’m tired.”
“Then let me in.”
The mate bond surged again—hot, electric, real. It burned through the dream like sunlight through fog. The walls of the warehouse crumbled. The water stilled. Sam’s voice dissolved into the dark.
Kier reached for me and his hand wrapped around mine. The contact sent a shock through me—pain and comfort all at once.
I gasped. “You’re real.”
“I’m always real.” His voice cracked on it. “Now come back.”
The fire dimmed, replaced by light—warm, steady, golden.
For a moment, everything was still. The chains fell away. The wolf inside me howled, low and distant, but this time the sound wasn’t pain—it was power.
I looked down. My wrists were clean. My body light.
Kier’s eyes held mine, fierce and unyielding. “You’re not done yet.”
I nodded, breath trembling. “I know.”
And just like that, the world began to fade again—not into darkness, but into light.
The bed returned beneath me. The smell of cedar and rain.
I tried to move, but my limbs felt heavy.
Somewhere beyond the dream, I heard voices—muffled but close.
“Kier, her pulse is spiking.”
“She’s fighting.”
The world of the dream crumbled like sand under water.
I reached for Kier one last time, his hand still warm in mine.
“I’m coming back,” I whispered.
And then—
A gasp tore from my throat as my body jolted. Air rushed in, burning and alive. My eyes flew open.