Kieran's POV
I could feel the exact moment Mira fell asleep on that freezing park bench.
The Dreamscape opened like a doorway between our worlds, and there she was—curled up on cold wood, shivering even in sleep, with everything she owned stuffed into garbage bags at her feet.
Seven years I'd been watching her like this. Seven years of visiting her dreams as a silent wolf, never speaking, never touching, just watching from the shadows because I was too much of a coward to tell her the truth.
That she was created to kill me.
That loving her was the cruelest thing I'd ever done.
That in three days, when her twenty-fourth birthday completed its cycle, the curse would drag her to Shadowveil Forest whether she wanted to come or not. And one of us—probably both of us—would die.
My wolf form paced the edge of the dream forest, torn between the instinct to protect her and the knowledge that I was the danger. The beast inside me wanted to go to her, to keep her warm, to make sure she was safe.
But the man I used to be knew better.
"This is the last time," I told myself, same as I'd said every night for the past seven years. "Tomorrow, I'll stay away. I'll let her go."
I was a liar.
I couldn't stay away from her any more than I could stop breathing. She was the only thing that kept me sane during the endless days trapped in my wolf form, unable to shift back, unable to speak, unable to rule my kingdom.
In the Dreamscape, I could be human again. I could talk. I could think clearly without the wolf's instincts clouding everything.
But only here. Only with her.
Mira stirred in her sleep, and the dream forest solidified around her. She appeared in the clearing where we always met—a moonlit space between massive trees that existed nowhere in the real world.
She looked so tired. So broken.
And it was my fault.
The curse that bound me was slowly destroying her too. The closer she got to her twenty-fourth birthday, the more the Dreamscape would bleed into her waking life. Soon, she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between dreams and reality. Soon, the curse would consume her completely.
Unless I did something to stop it.
Tonight, I made my choice.
I stepped out of the shadows, my massive black wolf form moving silently across the dream grass. Mira's eyes were closed, her breathing steady, but I knew she sensed me. She always did.
"Hello," she whispered without opening her eyes. "I wondered if you'd come tonight."
My heart clenched. She talked to me sometimes in the dreams, even though I'd never answered. She'd tell me about her day, her fears, her loneliness. She'd sketch me in a journal she kept hidden under her mattress—dozens of drawings of a black wolf with golden eyes.
She had no idea she was drawing the cursed king who'd ruined her life before it even began.
I did something I'd never done before.
I shifted.
The transformation was agonizing, as always. Bones cracking and reforming. Fur dissolving into skin. The wolf screaming inside me as the human form took over.
When it was done, I stood on two legs for the first time in seven years—at least in a way that felt real.
Mira's eyes snapped open.
She stared at me, her face going pale with shock. In the Dreamscape, she was more beautiful than in the waking world—the magic here stripped away exhaustion and pain, showing who she truly was beneath the suffering.
"Who are you?" she breathed.
"My name is Kieran Nightshade." My voice came out rough, unused to forming words. "And I'm sorry, Mira. I'm so, so sorry for what's about to happen to you."
She scrambled to her feet, backing away. "This is just a dream. You're not real. None of this is real."
"I wish that were true." I stayed where I was, not moving closer even though everything in me wanted to. "But I'm as real as you are. I've been visiting your dreams since you turned seventeen—the night the curse first connected us."
"Curse? What curse? What are you talking about?"
Where did I even start?
"Seven years ago, I was the Alpha King of the werewolf territories," I said. "I was twenty-four years old, engaged to be married, trying to bring peace to my people. Then my fiancée was murdered, and her mother—a powerful witch named Morgana—cursed me for her death."
Mira's eyes widened. "Werewolves aren't real."
"Yes, they are. And so is magic. And so are curses that trap kings in wolf form for seven years with no way to shift back." I took a careful step closer. "Morgana cursed me to stay as a wolf until 'the one made to end me' either breaks the curse through willing sacrifice or completes a death ritual. You're that person, Mira."
"That's insane—"
"You were created by Morgana using forbidden blood magic," I continued, needing to get it all out before she woke up. "She made you specifically to be my salvation or my destruction. That birthmark on your shoulder? It's a binding sigil connecting your life force to mine."
Mira touched her shoulder automatically. "No. No, that's not possible. I'm just... I'm just a normal person who has weird dreams—"
"Do normal people wake up covered in dirt from forests they never visited? Do they sleepwalk into places that shouldn't exist? Do their birthmarks glow with silver light?"
She went completely still.
"It's glowing right now, isn't it?" I asked quietly. "It started burning the moment you turned twenty-four. And it's going to get worse over the next three days until the full moon rises."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I can feel it too." I touched my chest, where an identical mark burned beneath my skin—the other half of the binding curse. "We're connected, Mira. Have been since the moment Morgana created you. Every dream you have of me, I'm actually there. Every time you see the wolf with golden eyes, that's me watching over you."
Tears filled her eyes. "Why? Why would someone create me just to kill you?"
"Because Morgana doesn't just want me dead. She wants to harvest the power released when an Alpha King dies. Your death in the ritual would fuel that power transfer." I moved closer, desperate for her to understand. "But here's what she didn't plan on—I fell in love with you."
Mira's breath caught.
"For seven years, I've watched you grow up," I continued. "I've listened to you talk in your dreams. I've seen your kindness, your strength, your refusal to give up even when life kept knocking you down. You're not just a weapon to me, Mira. You're everything."
"Stop," she whispered. "Please stop."
"I can't. Because in three days, when you turn twenty-four and a half, the curse enters its final phase. It will pull you to Shadowveil Forest where I'm trapped. The ritual will activate whether you choose it or not. And when it does..." I closed my eyes. "Morgana will force you to either sacrifice yourself to break my curse, or she'll use you to kill me and take my power. Either way, you die."
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Her voice broke. "How do I stop this?"
"You don't come to the forest," I said firmly. "No matter what happens. No matter who threatens you or what you feel pulling you there. You stay away, Mira. Let the curse take me instead. At least then you'll have a chance to live."
"But you'll die."
"I've been dead for seven years already." I reached out and touched her face, marveling that I could feel her skin against my palm even in a dream. "You deserve a life, Mira. A real life. Not one defined by a curse you didn't choose."
The dream began to fade—dawn approaching in the real world.
"Wait!" Mira grabbed my hand. "If I don't come to the forest, what happens to you?"
"The curse stays. I remain a wolf forever. My kingdom falls. But you live." I managed a smile. "That's all that matters to me."
"That's not fair—"
"Life rarely is." I felt the pull of waking dragging me back to my wolf form, back to the cage of my curse. "Remember what I said. Don't come to Shadowveil Forest. Don't try to save me. Save yourself instead."
The last thing I saw before the dream shattered was Mira's face, tears streaming down her cheeks, her hand reaching for me.
Then I was back in my wolf body, lying in the ruins of what used to be my throne room, trapped and alone.
I howled—a sound of pure agony and despair.
Because I knew the truth that I hadn't told her.
The curse wouldn't just pull her to the forest in three days.
It would kill everyone she'd ever known if she refused to come.
Morgana's final cruelty: Mira could choose to sacrifice herself and maybe save me, or she could stay away and watch everyone in Thornridge Village burn.
And I'd just told her to stay away.
I'd just condemned them all to death.