Mia’s POV
My lungs burned like hot ash, but I didn’t stop running.
The moment Lucas had said “run,” I had bolted into the thick tree line, tearing past the looming pines as fast as my legs could carry me. The midnight air in the forest was sharp and cold, cutting through my thin dark tank top, but the adrenaline surging through my veins kept the chill from settling.
Behind me, the roar of the three hundred initiates tearing into the woods echoed like distant thunder, but I stayed far off the main path, cutting deep into the unlit brush.
Five minutes. That was all the head start I had before the brothers came after me.
My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs as I pushed through a dense thicket of wild blackberry brambles, the sharp thorns catching on my denim shorts. I pause
