The Mate I Shouldn’t Have

LEO

The second Ash Carver’s fingers brushed mine, the world stopped moving.

I don’t mean it felt that way, I mean it actually stopped.

The noise of the gym vanished. The lights above faded into a blur. Every smell, sound, thought dropped into a quiet void where only one thing existed: the snap of something invisible binding itself between us.

Mate.

My wolf surged forward so fast it almost knocked me off balance. My pulse roared like a hurricane in my ears, and I jerked my hand away like his skin had burned me.

He looked just as shocked.

His head tilted slightly, as if trying to hear something only he could hear. For a moment, I thought I saw something flicker in his eyes, recognition? Regret?

No.

I forced my body to move. To breathe. To think.

“Ready?” the instructor barked.

I nodded stiffly. Ash nodded too, though slower.

He stepped into the center of the mat like a predator. His posture was perfect, his gaze unreadable. He was everything a Redline champion should be. And now, the boy my soul apparently wanted to bond with.

Great.

I dropped into my stance. I couldn’t afford this. I didn’t even believe in the whole “fated mates” myth, not like this. I’d always thought I’d choose who I loved. Not… this.

I lunged first. Quick jab to test his reflexes.

He blocked it easily. Of course he did.

“Is that all?” he said under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

I gritted my teeth. “You want more?”

He gave me a small, knowing smirk. “I can handle it.”

I followed with a low sweep. He dodged, fluid like water. I twisted, pivoted, and tried again. He didn’t counter. He didn’t fight. He just moved like he already knew what I would do.

“Come on,” I hissed again. “Fight.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. He stepped in and trapped my wrist, spinning me around and pinning my arm behind me. His breath hit the back of my neck. Hot.

“You fight like someone who’s hiding something,” he whispered.

I slammed my heel into his shin, broke free, and shoved him back.

He stumbled, surprised, but just for a second. Then he grinned.

The instructor clapped. “Good form, Reyes. Carver. You two should train together more often.”

Gods, no.

Ash glanced at me again as he walked off the mat. This time, he didn’t grin. He looked curious and suspicious. Like he was already putting pieces together.

My stomach turned.

**********************

Juno cornered me during lunch break behind the gym, tossing a juice bottle at my chest.

“What happened?” she asked. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

“I touched Ash Carver.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Wait, what?”

“I touched him. Skin to skin. During sparring.”

Her brows shot up. “And?”

“It happened.”

“You’re joking.”

I didn’t answer.

“Leo, seriously? You’re saying he’s your?”

“Mate,” I finished bitterly. “Yeah.”

She stared at me like I’d just admitted to eating silver. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Ash freaking Carver? The Blackclaw golden boy? That Ash?”

“The very one.”

“Does he know?”

“I think he suspects. He looked at me like, like he felt it too.”

Juno groaned and dropped onto the bench. “Oh, perfect. Your soulmate just so happens to be the heir to the psycho alpha who wants to burn Shade Wolf alive. This is fine. Totally fine.”

“Thanks for the support.”

She waved a hand. “Okay, okay. No sarcasm. What now?”

“I keep my distance,” I said. “I stay quiet, keep racing, and don’t let him anywhere near my real identity.”

“You think he’s that dumb?”

I shook my head. “No. That’s the problem.”

She leaned forward. “So... does he know you’re Shade Wolf?”

“Not yet,” I muttered. “But last night…”

Juno blinked. “Wait, what happened last night?”

I hesitated, then told her everything. The chase. The enforcers. The figure who grabbed me and pulled me behind the wall.

“You think it was Ash?” she asked, eyes wide.

“I know it was. I saw his eyes and I think he saw mine.”

Juno didn’t say anything for a second. “He’s already looking for the Shade Wolf and now he’s bonded to her and doesn’t know it.”

“Yeah.”

She rubbed her face. “Okay, well... this got messy fast.”

“You think?”

The rest of the day passed in a blur of whispers and stolen glances. Ash barely looked at me during class, but I could feel him watching. It was like a string had tied itself from my ribs to his, tight and buzzing and impossible to ignore.

By the time I got home, I was shaking.

I threw my bag onto the floor and locked the garage door behind me.

Racing gear, helmet, gloves. All there, waiting and calling me.

I paced the cement floor until I couldn’t anymore. Then I sat down at my work table and began checking the boots’ magnetic pads, just to keep my hands busy.

“Still alive?” Juno’s voice buzzed from the comm speaker.

“Barely.”

“You training or panicking?”

“Both.”

I heard her sigh. “Want backup?”

“Not unless you’ve got a spare identity I can borrow.”

She laughed, but I didn’t.

I heard the door creak open. My mom peeked in, her face pale and thin, the way it always was now. She didn’t speak. She just looked at me like she was afraid to say my name.

I offered a tired smile.

She closed the door again.

I missed the version of her from before. The mom who used to braid my hair and scream at the races on our tiny TV. That woman died when Rafe was exiled.

Now all I had was Juno and the Shade Wolf. And now… Ash.

My fingers trembled as I reached for the helmet.

It was getting too dangerous. I had to decide soon.

Either stop racing…

Or win the Trials before anyone figured me out.

*********************

The next morning, I found Ash waiting by the training mats again. He wasn’t scheduled to train. He wasn’t even dressed for it.

But he was watching me.

I ignored him. I went through the drills. I didn’t speak.

He didn’t either.

But I knew he wasn’t going away.

That afternoon, something worse happened.

Coach Briar Voss, the one adult I trusted even a little, pulled me aside after class.

“You're being watched,” he said under his breath. “Stay sharp.”

I froze. “By who?”

He didn’t answer.

I turned just in time to see Ash walk past the hallway window, glancing in with that unreadable expression again.

He wasn’t watching me because he was my mate.

He was hunting me.

And if he got too close, he’d find the truth.

That I was Shade Wolf.

And then everything, Juno, the Trials, my life, would be over.