The Free Spirit

Chapter 1

“Really?” Ronan barely suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

“Come on,” Elias pleaded, tugging at the tie around his neck like it was choking him. “You know I don’t get this chance very often. I haven’t seen Logan in ages. He’s in the area until he starts his new position at Midnight Woods. I probably won’t get to see him again once he moves.”

Ronan stopped next to the driver’s side of the car, bracing his forearms on the roof as he leaned across to look at his friend. The metal was hot from sitting in the sun, warming through the thin fabric of his sleeves.

Elias was tall and broad with dark hair and matching dark eyes, the kind of build that made people assume confidence. But his suit was already a rumpled mess, the collar slightly crooked and the tie hanging loose around his neck like he’d been fighting with it for the last hour.

Elias hated coming into the human city for business meetings, but Ronan had been accompanying his father to meetings like these since he was fourteen. It felt like second nature now, slipping into polished shoes and shaking hands with humans who had no idea what he really was. When his dad asked him to take over the meetings six months ago, Ronan hadn’t hesitated.

And, of course, his father had insisted that Ronan bring Elias along.

He claimed it was so Elias could learn the businesses as well, which was probably true to some extent. But his father had also never liked that Elias and Ronan weren’t best friends the way their fathers were.

It wasn’t that Ronan disliked Elias. They were almost two years apart in age, which had felt like a lifetime when they were younger. Add in the fact that Elias had always been a bit of a loner, quiet and distant in a way that made it hard to approach him, and Ronan had never really figured out how to get to know him.

But in the last several months, Ronan had learned a surprising amount about Logan Hanover, the third son of a beta from the Derby Pines pack.

Also Elias’s… boyfriend, for lack of a better word.

Ronan didn’t have an issue with Elias being gay. In fact, he’d accidentally stumbled onto that secret when he was fifteen and had caught Elias making out with another male warrior behind the training hall. The memory still made him smirk sometimes, mostly because Elias had looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole.

What Ronan didn’t understand was Elias’s reluctance to come out to anyone in the pack, even his parents. Ronan knew being gay wasn’t always accepted among werewolves, but times had changed. And their pack, New Dawn, was considered especially progressive. If they could accept someone like Ronan as their future alpha, surely no one was going to bat an eye at the future beta being into guys. But Elias insisted he had his reasons. Reasons he never seemed willing to share with Ronan.

“Please?” Elias raised his eyebrows, his voice softening into something that bordered on desperate.

Ronan sighed, the sound dragging out of his chest. “Fine.”

Relief washed over Elias’s face so fast it was almost painful to watch.

'“He wants to meet at a bar called the Spirits,” Elias said, sliding into the passenger seat. The leather creaked under his weight. “It’s a little bit out of town.” He pulled out his phone and plugged it into the GPS before Ronan could say anything else.

Ronan bit back another sigh as he started the car and reluctantly followed the directions. The engine rumbled to life beneath his hands. He cranked the air conditioning higher, letting the blast of cool air hit his face. It was annoyingly hot for mid-May, and the suit clung to his back in a way that made him feel sweaty and gross.

“How long are we going to be?” he asked, taking the turn the GPS indicated.

“I don’t know.” Elias stared out the passenger-side window, shoulders curled forward like he was trying to make himself smaller. “I haven’t seen him in almost two months. I want to go back to his hotel after we have a drink.”

Ronan wrinkled his nose. “Do you expect me to wait? I can just drop you off and pick you up tomorrow morning.”

“No.” Elias shook his head quickly, almost violently. “People will wonder where I’ve been.”

“Tell them you were hooking up with someone. They don’t need to know who.”

“I can’t.”

Ronan glanced over at him again, catching the tight set of his jaw and the way his fingers twisted in the hem of his jacket.

“Why, E?” Ronan asked. “What’s the big deal? They don’t need to know you were with a guy. I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“I know that.” Elias closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the glass window. The movement fogged the edge of the glass with his breath. “I trust you, Ro. It’s just that…” He blew out a long sigh, shoulders creeping closer to his ears until they nearly touched.

Ronan knew the conversation was over. Elias wasn’t going to talk anymore, not until they got to the bar. That was just how he was. Quiet, but in a painful way that made Ronan feel like he was always standing outside a locked door. He’d been like that for as long as Ronan could remember.

There had been so many kids in the pack house growing up. Elias himself was the oldest of six, his younger siblings constantly shouting over one another to be heard. Then there was Ronan and his younger twin sisters. Plus Scarlett and her brothers. Then all his cousins, Elex, Enzo, Booker, and Willa.

Ronan had loved it.

There had always been someone to play with, someone to chase through the halls or wrestle in the yard. He had rarely been bored, running wild with the other kids of the ranked members of his pack. The workers at the pack house had often brought their kids around too. Ronan’s mom had wanted the pack house to feel welcoming to everyone, regardless of rank or standing.

His pack was progressive, though most werewolf packs seemed to be catching up with the times. There weren’t many packs left that didn’t allow female warriors anymore, and more and more packs had she-wolves in ranked roles.

But New Dawn was more progressive than most, probably because of his mother’s heritage and his father’s determination to shape their pack into a place where anyone could belong.

Ronan rolled into the surprisingly full parking lot for a Wednesday evening, gravel crunching under the tires. Music thumped faintly from inside the building, the bass vibrating through the frame of the car.

He could feel the tension radiating off Elias now, a sharp, shimmering orange that burned too bright at the edges of his vision. Ronan blinked hard and gave his head a small shake to clear the color away.

Seeing emotions was just one of his many talents.

“Is he here?” Ronan asked, keeping his voice light.

“I don’t know,” Elias murmured. “He hasn’t responded to my text.”

“Well, let’s go in then. No point in sitting in the car.”

Ronan opened the door, heat rushing in immediately, but Elias made no move to get out.

“Come on, E.” Ronan reached over and gave his shoulder a light shove. “Let’s get you some liquid courage. You need to learn to relax. You probably already have high blood pressure at twenty-two.”

Elias finally glanced at him, rolling his eyes as he opened the door. But Ronan caught the faintest lift at the corner of his mouth. He had no idea how to get Elias to loosen up.

But at least this was a start.