Chapter 4

Kiera slowly regained awareness of her physical form, lying spent on the hard-packed earth of the cave floor. She felt utterly drained yet somehow more vitally alive than she had ever been

The merging with Ryker's primal spiritual force still had her reeling. 

She'd experienced raptures and revelations far beyond the reaches of any mortal mind to comprehend.

 For a transcendent, infinite moment, she had been more than just Kiera - she'd been the very embodiment of the luna renigitio itself.

"Breathe deep, little Luna," came Ryker's gruff baritone beside her. "The first immersion is always head-spinningly intense."  

She turned her head toward him, blinking to clear her vision. 

He looked as ruggedly corporeal as ever, yet there was an undeniable aura of power emanating from him now. His entire being seemed to thrum with preternatural dominance and ancient glory.

"That was...I've never felt anything like that in my life," Kiera managed, her voice trembling. "It was like being reborn into something much greater than myself."

Ryker's full lips curved into a wolfish grin of clear satisfaction. "Indeed. 

You've taken the first step on the true path to realizing your destined role as the embodied conduit of our goddess's authority. The renigitio force capable of overturning the despotic regimes that have profaned our sacred rites for far too long."

Kiera pushed herself up onto one elbow, feeling the lingering tingle of cosmic energy still thrumming through her very cells. "So that was just the first baby step? There's more to come than that mind-shattering experience?"

"Much more," Ryker affirmed with a curt nod. "Our spiritual merging and the awakening of your primal essence was merely the first of seven cosmic gateways you must unveil and pass through. 

Each will unlock more of the infinite renigitio power lying dormant inside you until you burn with the radiant force of a newborn celestial body."

He rose fluidly to his feet and began pacing before her in the cramped confines of their small grotto. 

Despite his fluid grace, Kiera could sense the predatory prowling of a caged alpha beast struggling to contain its feral intensity.  

"We'll need to move locations soon to begin the next phase," he stated, his gravelly tone taking on an edge of rasping urgency. "Somewhere more expansive. 

Damien's bloodscent patrols are still combing this entire forest. We can't risk them picking up your awakened essence now that the change has begun gestating in your core."

Kiera felt a flutter of apprehension in her gut. "You mean leave these woods? But how can we hope to evade Damien's entire hunting force out in the open? They'll sniff us out for sure!"

Ryker fixed her with those depthless hazel eyes that seemed to glitter with ancient secrets. "We'll use speed and stealth under cover of night to cross into the Viridian Ridge Valleys beyond the western foothills. 

My family's sacred ancestral redoubts are hidden deep within those fern-shrouded glades and escort tunnels. That's where your transformation to primality's next phase must take place."

Kiera worried her lower lip, feeling utterly overwhelmed by the monumental path being laid out before her.

 Could she truly manage to reach these alleged inviolable ancestral lands of Ryker's lineage? And if so, at what ultimate cost would she be expected to pay for her freedom from the old regime's tyranny?

"If we're pursued and captured..." she ventured uncertainly. "Damien will stop at nothing to make us both pay for my defection. You know that, don't you?"

Ryker's expression turned grimly resolute, all hints of renigitio metaphysics falling away to reveal the lethally pragmatic alpha hunter. 

"Then we cannot allow ourselves to be caught," he replied with a finality that brooked no argument.

 "At all costs, Kiera - your path as the Luna regeneratrix must be cleared of all opposition. No matter what savage barbarism we must unleash to ensure our safe passage."

Kiera gave a slow nod, feeling the ruthless lupine side of her own nature rising in concord with his single minded ferocity. 

They were committed to this destined upheaval now, for better or for worse. 

"Very well," she agreed, locking her gaze with his,solidly. "On your lead, Ryker. I'm ready to embrace whatever primal savageries await on the road ahead."

His features shifted subtly at her sublime acceptance - burning with a predatory mixture.

Ryker gave a curt nod of approval at Kiera's words.

 She could see the intense hunger flaring in his eyes - not just the carnal craving of a potent male for a willing female, but the deeper, more primordial yearning. 

The insatiable alpha desire to utterly dominate, to conquer and subjugate every aspect of her being to his indomitable will.

It should have terrified her, this blatant threat of violation deep in her omega's core. But instead, Kiera felt her own nascent submission rising to meet his stark dominance head-on. 

Some newly awakened part of her was rabidly eager to be mastered, overcome, absorbed into his transcendent primality.

Perhaps that was the true essence of Luna renigitio's infinite power - existing in perfect synergy with her alpha's feral supremacy.

Seeming to sense the electric charge now crackling between them, Ryker closed the distance separating their bodies with two powerful strides. 

His rough, callused hands found her waist, drawing her flush against the rigid planes of his muscular frame.

"We move under cover of night," he growled in a low, gritty rasp that made her nerves tingle. "Travel swiftly and silently until we reach the ridgeline ravines as dawn breaks. 

I'll show you the hidden path into the ancestral redoubt where your metamorphic progression can begin."