Selene’s POV
The branches tore at my arms like claws as I ran, my breath hitching, my lungs screaming to go faster as the footsteps lunged closer. The leaves wet from the earlier downpour, and every step I took felt like it dragged me deeper into a place I wasn’t going to escape from.
My bare feet slipped on the ground, and the taste of blood coated my tongue where I'd bitten down to silence my own sobs.
I didn’t know where I was going. I only knew I had to run. For Aria. For myself. For the pieces of Dominic that were finally starting to make sense.
But freedom wasn’t meant for women like me. A sharp pain sliced through my temple, I fell down and everything went black.
*****
I woke up in a room that smelled like something rotten beneath the surface. My wrists were tied behind me, my
