RIDE ME TO SIN

CHAPTER THREE

[Rhyder’s POV]

My mate.

I knew the very moment I saw her. It had slammed through my consciousness with the force of a freight train, and every instinct in me screamed at me to close the distance, to touch her and claim what was mine.

The bond pulled between us…with a force that was so undeniable, and I waited for her to feel it too…to recognize it.

But she didn’t even look up.

How was that possible? Wolves recognized their mates instantly. It was biological, fundamental, as natural as breathing.

But she didn’t recognize me. She just walked past, her arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to hold herself together.

I wanted to leave her be…for now, and approach her later. She still had that shocked look that made me realize that she was fresh here. So I would give her the time to recover from the initial shock every one of us had before I dump this on her.

But then those assholes blocked her path, and rage ignited in my chest.

Mine, the wolf inside me snarled. Ours. Protect.

And I did just that.

When I finally got a clear look at her—really looked—my mouth went dry.

Fucking hell.

She was gorgeous.

Although gorgeous seemed to be such an understatement for her. With her curves that went on for miles, soft in all the places that made my hands itch to touch. Dark hair falling past her shoulders, full lips, and eyes that held so much pain it physically hurt to see. She looked like every dark fantasy I’d ever had wrapped in one perfect package.

And she was mine.

My mind supplied about a dozen filthy scenarios before I could stop it—her underneath me, those lips parted on a moan, my name falling from her tongue while I…

Focus, you bastard.

She looked lost. Broken. Like someone had taken everything from her and left her with nothing but the shell.

The bullies scattered, and I turned to her fully, trying to gentle my voice, trying not to look like some predator about to pounce even though that’s exactly what I felt like.

“You alright?”

She nodded, but her arms tightened around her stomach, and something twisted in my chest. Something beyond mate instinct. Something that recognized trauma when it saw it.

“Come on. Let me walk you wherever you’re going.”

We fell into step, and none of us said a word until we reached the lodge she’d been assigned to, and she stopped at the entrance.

“Thank you.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “For helping me back there. I appreciate it.”

She turned to leave, to disappear inside, and panic flared in my chest.

I caught her wrist. “Wait. I didn’t catch your name.”

She looked at my hand on her wrist, then up at my face, and the cold distance in her eyes made my wolf whimper.

“Look, I’m grateful for your help,” she said, “but I’m not interested in making friends or chitchatting here. So if you’ll excuse me…”

She pulled free and vanished through the door before I could respond.

I stood there like an i***t, staring at the place she’d been, my hand still raised.

Then I bit back a smile.

That coldness, that fierce determination to keep everyone at arm’s length—it reminded me so much of Sarah.

Sarah.

My chest constricted, the smile dying. My daughter. Seven years old with her mother’s eyes and my stubborn streak. She’d looked at me the same way the last time I’d tried to help her with homework, insisting she could do it herself, that she didn’t need anyone.

Two days later, my cousins had slit her throat in front of me.

I closed my eyes, forcing the memory back into the box where I kept it locked. If I let it out now, if I let myself feel that rage and grief fully, I’d burn this entire realm to the ground.

But that was why I was here. Why I had to win.

One week before my death meant one week before hers. I could save her. Could stop my cousins before they ever got close, could rewrite the nightmare that had been playing on loop in my head since the moment I’d died.

I would get Sarah back. No matter what it cost.

My mate—Daisy—she’d have to wait. I’d figure out why she couldn’t feel the bond, why she looked at me like I was just another threat in a world full of them. I’d be patient.

But first, I had business to handle.

I turned and walked back the way we’d come, my footsteps deliberate, my expression locked into something cold and lethal.

Found them exactly where I’d left them—Brandon and his pack of jackals, still drinking, still laughing like they hadn’t just made the worst mistake of their short afterlives.

They saw me coming, and the laughter died.

“Hey, man, we were just—”

I grabbed Brandon by the throat and slammed him against the wall hard enough to crack stone. The others jumped up, but one look from me froze them in place.

“Listen very carefully,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “That woman you insulted? She’s mine. You touch her again, you speak to her again, you even look at her wrong, and I will kill you. Not metaphorically. Not eventually. I will end your existence in this realm and make sure whatever’s left of your soul suffers for eternity.”

Brandon’s face had gone purple, his hands scrabbling uselessly at my grip.

“Do we understand each other?”

He managed a jerky nod.

I held him there for three more seconds—long enough for the message to sink in, long enough for his friends to see exactly what would happen if they tested me—then dropped him.

He collapsed, gasping, and I stepped over him without a second glance.

“Spread the word,” I said to the others. “Daisy is off-limits. To everyone.”

I walked away, already planning my next move.

She might not recognize the mate bond yet, but that didn’t change what she was to me. Mine to protect. Mine to claim. Mine to keep.

And I’d be damned—more damned than I already was—if I let anyone hurt her again.