Three

Ridge’s Pov

After showering and changing into my sweats, I grabbed my laptop, pulled up in my king sized bed, then I powered it up. I needed to check my emails and see if I had something important pending, but that wasn’t what I did when it loaded up.

I typed out Blake’s name and it brought up her father’s story. I started to read it page after page, and when I was done, I could only shake my head with a disbelieving groan.

The man had acted like an animal, like a werewolf who had gone rogue would, with no remorse at all, not towards his daughter or the people he had ended.

I had scrolled down to see more articles on Blake herself and how a mugger had almost killed her in an alley because he wanted to “wipe out” the monster’s family.

“Oh goodness, she’s been through a lot.” I muttered to myself.

Claiming her to be mine, marking her and pulling her into my world would do even more to her, because she was human. Alpha’s rarely get human mates, and even when they do, they almost never get accepted into the pack.

Making her go through all of that for my selfish interest… well I didn't think... “Don’t even dare finish that sentence, Ridge. She’s ours, whether you like it or not.” My wolf said.

Of course, he thinks like that, but not with the consequences of what this would probably do to her. I thought of all she would also have to endure, and I shook my head.

No way was this going to work, whether or not she was the only woman who had actually ever made me feel the way I did when I first saw her, or realized she was my mate. It would be too much for her.

So, there and then, I decided I was going to reject her. It would be a bit painful for both of us, but that would be better than being selfish and wanting her to be a part of my life as well.

Only when I saw her again three days later, that thought fly right out of my head. I was driving to the bakery where Mom asked me to pick up some cupcakes for her when I saw her walking down the street with her head down and an earpiece in her ear, then she walked into an alley.

Fuck, she was really nice looking with those long legs that went on for days, and curves she had no right having.

I was going to just drive past and let her be, then I saw a man walk into the alley, following behind her, and she didn't seem to know or notice, probably because of the earpiece she had in her ears.

The man seemed to be in his late thirties maybe, wiry build, but there was a tension in his shoulders I knew too well.

There was something about him, and I could instantly tell he didn't mean well. He was a predator.

He slipped into the alley right after her, looking over his shoulder as if to make sure no one saw him followed her. Son of a bitch.i

I threw the car in park without thinking. Was out and moving before the door slammed behind me.

I cut down the side of the building, my heart already hammering.

Then I heard it, the shove.

A sharp, muffled sound… the distinct impact of someone being slammed into brick.

“Ah!” Blake’s voice.

Panic. Shock.

I rounded the corner just in time to see the bastard push her up against the wall, one grimy hand clamped around her upper arm.

And the other?

Pulling something shiny and sharp from his pocket.

A knife.

“You think you’re better than the rest of us?” he spat at her, voice low and venomous. “You think just because your daddy’s rotting in prison, that makes you clean? Nah, sweetheart. Monsters breed monsters.”

Blake froze… wide-eyed, trembling, but her chin tilted up anyway. Brave.

Too brave.

And way too human for this.

“That’s right,” he sneered. “You’re just like him. And I’m gonna finish what he started.”

He raised the knife and I wanted to shout to him how that was a bad move.

My vision tunneled. My wolf exploded inside me like a goddamn wildfire.

Before the blade could even catch the light, I was on him.

“Wrong,” I growled with my voice so low and lethal I almost didn’t recognize it.

I grabbed the bastard by the back of his neck, yanked him away from her like he weighed nothing, and slammed him face-first into the opposite wall.

The brick cracked and so did his nose.

Blake gasped, stumbling back, pressing herself against the wall... and her eyes, those wild, terrified eyes, landed on me.

And just like that, all my reasons for staying away were long gone

Gone and burned to ash.

Because there was no goddamn way I was letting her go now.

Not ever.