Dream

Dream
Reyna's Pov

The dream pulled me in softly, like silk winding around my body, lulling me into a place that wasn’t quite real but felt familiar — almost sacred.

I stood in the middle of a vast, open hall. The walls stretched high into the sky, disappearing into clouds of deep indigo and swirling mist. Moonlight streamed in through a shattered glass ceiling, casting gentle beams across the black marble floorcasting gentle beams across the black marble floor that shimmered like water. The air was heavy with the scent of roses and something darker—something like aged wine and ash. It wasn’t frightening. It was… mesmerizing. Comforting, even.

In the center of the hall stood Draven. But not the Draven I had come to know. This version of him was draped in shadows, his eyes glowing faintly like twin embers. He was barefoot, shirtless, with blood trailing down the side of his mouth — and still, I couldn’t look away. His presence didn’t scare me. Instead, it stirred something deep within me, something primal and strange. I wasn’t sure if it was desire… or destiny.

He raised his hand slowly, reaching toward me. “You see me now,” he said, voice soft but echoing through the room. “All of me.”

I should’ve stepped back. But my feet moved forward instead, drawn to him like a magnet. His fingers brushed my cheek, cool and tender. The touch sent heat racing down my spine.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he whispered.
His voice wrapped around me like velvet dipped in midnight—dark, smooth, dangerous. “You feel it, don’t you?” he whispered, his fingers trailing slowly up my arm, igniting sparks that danced across my skin. I couldn’t breathe. Not because I was afraid, but because something deep inside me stirred at his touch—something ancient, something that belonged to him. His eyes, red and endless, pinned me in place. I should have been terrified. Every part of him screamed danger. But I wasn’t. I was drawn to it. To him. “The darkness in me…” he murmured, his lips brushing my ear, sending a shiver down my spine, “it calls to something in you.” I trembled, but not from fear—from the pull, the heat, the impossible need building between us. He didn’t hold me like I was fragile. He touched me like I was the answer to a hunger he had long denied. My heart pounded, wild and wanting, and still I didn’t move. “You’re not afraid,” he said, voice like a promise and a warning, his smile slow, wicked, beautiful. “You should be.” And maybe I should. But I wasn’t. Because every inch of me already belonged to him—darkness and all.

His mouth was so close now, the words spilling from his lips like a spell I never wanted to break. “Say it,” he whispered, his thumb grazing the corner of my mouth, eyes flickering between mine. “Say you feel it too.”

And I did. I felt it everywhere—this heat, this ache, this strange, magnetic pull that defied logic. My body leaned into his, my breath trembling as I looked up at him. “I feel it,” I whispered, the words shaky but true. “I feel you.”

His lips brushed mine—not a kiss, not yet, just a ghost of one. A cruel, beautiful tease. “You’re mine,” he said against my skin, and though every instinct should have resisted the claim, I felt it settle into my bones like it was always meant to be there.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Only the sound of my heartbeat. Loud. Wild. Alive.

And then—

The dream shattered.

I jolted awake, gasping as though I’d just surfaced from deep underwater. My chest heaved with ragged breaths, and sweat clung to every inch of my skin. My sheets were tangled around my legs, soaked. The room was dark and quiet, save for the frantic thrum of my own pulse.

Arms wrapped around me.

“It’s alright,” came Draven’s voice, low and close to my ear. “It’s just a dream.”

His cool hands gently pressed against my damp back, trying to soothe me. I realized I was shaking. I turned into his chest, needing the anchor of him, needing the reality of his presence after the vivid dream that still burned behind my eyelids.

“I—I saw you,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “But not like how I usually do. It was… more. Deeper. You were darker. But it didn’t scare me. I wasn’t afraid.”

Draven’s hand stilled on my back.

He pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes, always unreadable, now flickered with something I couldn’t quite place — recognition? Worry? Guilt?

“What else did you see?” he asked, almost like he didn’t want to know.

I swallowed hard. “You said… I could see you now. All of you.”

His jaw clenched slightly, and a shadow passed over his face.

“The bond,” he muttered under his breath. “It’s deepening faster than I thought.”

I blinked. “What bond?”

He hesitated, then ran a hand through his hair, clearly debating how much to say.

“You’ve let me feed from you,” he finally said. “It’s not just about blood. It’s about connection. Trust. Submission. It’s… intimate. It ties souls together, if done willingly and also you're my mate Reyna, that makes it way worse.”

I shivered, not from fear — from understanding. “So I’m… connected to you now?”

His eyes softened. “More than I wanted you to be. More than I meant for you to be.”

The way he said it—like he regretted it, yet also treasured it—made my chest ache.

“But I’m not afraid,” I said again, more firmly this time. “Even in the dream. I felt everything, but I wasn’t afraid. I don’t think I ever really was.”

His hand reached up, brushing a strand of damp hair from my forehead. “That’s what scares me.”

I leaned into his touch, despite the warning in his voice. “Why?”

“Because if you see all of me, if you truly let yourself be pulled into that darkness… I may not be able to let you go.”

The silence after that was thick. Heavy with meaning.

Neither of us said another word as he pulled me closer, tucking my head under his chin. And even though the shadows still lingered in my mind, for the first time… they felt like home.