The Shadow Beneath My Skin

LEO

The sound of engines echoed like thunder beneath the ground. The world above was sleeping, but here, beneath the crumbling subway tunnels and forgotten streets, Redline was alive.

And so was I.

My fingers tightened around the steering grips as I crouched low on the modified board. The wind bit at my face through my helmet, but I didn’t feel it. I only heard the growls behind me. Two racers gaining fast. I pushed harder.

The undertrack curved sharply to the left. I didn’t blink. My reflexes moved before I thought. I leaned, kicked, and sliced past the corner wall with barely an inch of clearance. Sparks lit up the dark tunnel behind me. Someone clipped the edge.

Not me.

I shot forward like fire in a pipe.

“Shade Wolf leads again,” the announcer's voice crackled over the tunnel’s hacked speakers. “This rogue racer is a damn ghost.”

I didn’t need the praise. I needed to finish the lap. One more. One more lap and I’d qualify, quietly, secretly, for the Cross-Pack Trials. My chance to break everything they said a girl like me couldn’t touch.

I wasn’t just racing for victory. I was racing to exist.

My name is Elionna Reyes. Leo, to the two people who still care about me.

To the rest of the pack, I’m just the omega girl whose family lost their honor when my brother Rafe broke the rules and got exiled. My father never recovered. He barely speaks now. My mother hides in our home like it's a coffin. And me?

I became someone else. Someone faster. Someone dangerous.

I became Shade Wolf.

The final stretch blurred in front of me. My legs burned. My lungs ached. I bent forward, muscles trembling, and surged across the finish line.

First place. Again.

I slowed, gliding to a stop near the shadows of the platform where Juno waited, crouched behind old scaffolding. She flashed her flashlight twice, our signal to exit. But then her light blinked wildly. Not the usual signal.

Danger. My gut twisted.

I spun around. Two Blackclaw enforcers stepped onto the track behind me, their eyes scanning, noses in the air.

“She's here,” one of them growled. “I smell her.”

They’d been tracking me.

I took off.

“Left tunnel!” Juno’s voice crackled through my earpiece. “Cut through the rails!”

I sprinted down the corridor, ducking past rusted beams and dodging debris. My boots pounded the metal grates. I could hear them behind me, getting closer.

“Leo, go now!”

I twisted sharply, leapt over a broken barrier, and slid beneath a collapsed pipe. The walls around me blurred. I was fast, but they were trained. And if they caught me, it was over.

A flicker of motion in the dark ahead made me flinch.

Someone was there.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Waiting but it was too late to turn.

He stepped forward, fast. I braced to fight, but instead, he grabbed my arm and yanked me behind the nearest wall just as the enforcers thundered past.

His hand didn’t hurt. His grip was steady, controlled.

We stood there, both still. I didn’t breathe. Neither did he.

His scent hit me first, clean, sharp, wild. Not Blackclaw. Not one of theirs.

When the footsteps faded, I shoved his chest hard. “Who the hell?”

He didn’t speak. Just stared at me, his gaze unreadable. The light caught his eyes.

It was Icy blue.

They sent a shock through me.

Recognition buzzed beneath my skin.

And then, he was gone.

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

I made it home that night with my heart still pounding.

Juno was already in the garage, pacing back and forth. “You were supposed to be right behind me,” she said, panicked. “You disappeared! I thought they got you!”

“They almost did,” I muttered, stripping off my gear. “But someone got in their way.”

“Someone? Who?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know.”

But I lied.

Because part of me did.

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

The next morning, the entire academy buzzed with whispers. A new student. A transfer. Alpha-blooded. High-ranked.

I didn’t care. Not until he walked into combat training late, helmet under his arm, dark hair tousled, those same ice-blue eyes scanning the room.

He stopped when he saw me and I stopped breathing.

Ash Carver.

He wasn’t just the son of Alpha Magnus. He was the Blackclaw pack’s golden boy. The top racer. The heir to everything I hated.

Our instructor, Mr. Kellen, raised an eyebrow. “You’re late, Carver.”

“Roadblock,” he replied smoothly, then looked straight at me. “Won’t happen again.”

I turned my head, ignoring the burning in my chest.

“Pick a partner,” the instructor barked. “Sparring drills. No claws. Controlled force.”

I prayed he wouldn’t pick me.

He did.

We faced off on the mat. I dropped into stance, jaw tight. Ash moved slow, relaxed. Like he was testing me.

“Try not to cry, omega,” he said under his breath.

I shot forward.

He dodged.

Our arms locked for a second, and something inside me jolted. A pulse. A flare. Like lightning under my skin.

His eyes widened slightly.

He felt it too. My grip slackened.

Everything inside me screamed one word.

Mate.