The Free Spirit

Chapter 9

Elias was less than thrilled when Ronan mindlinked him about going to the Moon Clearing, but to his credit, he had simply agreed.

Ronan scarfed down a quick lunch before running back to his apartment to shower. By the time he reached the training field where they’d agreed to meet, Elias was already there, waiting and looking incredibly irritated.

Ronan didn’t have to wonder why. Elias wasn’t alone.

“Listen, Scar, I don’t care how fast your wolf is,” Julien was saying as Ronan approached. “She doesn’t have the stamina. She might start out fast, but she’ll burn out halfway.”

“Whatever.” Scarlett rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

Julien only grinned wider.

“Thank the Goddess you’re here,” Elias muttered as Ronan stepped up beside him. His shoulders were tight, hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket. “I cannot listen to these two argue for another minute.”

“Don’t act like that, bro,” Julien said, slinging an arm around Elias’s shoulders. Elias stiffened immediately and Julien ignored it completely. “You live for me putting old Scar here in her place.”

Ronan rolled his eyes. It was impossible to miss that Julien and Elias were brothers. Same dark hair. Same sharp eyes. But personality-wise? They couldn’t have been more different.

Julien was loud, bold, and relentlessly social. He was the kind of person who said whatever popped into his head, even when silence would have been the smarter choice.

Growing up, Ronan had been closer to Julien. They were only months apart in age, after all. At the academy, Ronan had secretly resented that Elias, not Julien, would be his beta someday.

But after a year back in the pack, his opinion had shifted. He trusted Elias’s caution far more than Julien’s recklessness.

“E lives for you shutting that giant hole in your face,” Scarlett shot back, rolling her eyes. “He’s probably more tired of your voice than anyone, considering he had to share a room with you growing up.”

Scarlett, the future gamma, was not someone easily intimidated. Today, her red curls were tied into a high ponytail, freckles bright across her nose, brown eyes narrowed in annoyance.

Julien grinned like he’d just been handed a gift. “Oh, Scar,” he said mockingly. “You wound me.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Make me.”

Scarlett looked ready to take him up on the offer.

Ronan cut in before fists got involved. “We’re heading to the Moon Clearing. You two want to come?”

Scarlett snorted. “No thanks. I’ve got patrol rotations to finalize, and unlike you idiots, I actually do my job.”

Julien gasped dramatically. “You wound me again. What happened to your sense of adventure, Scar? Afraid your wolf can’t keep up?”

Scarlett smirked. “No,” she said sweetly. “Just tired of carrying dead weight.”

Julien clutched his chest. “Savage.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes again and turned on her heel, already walking away.

Julien watched her go, shaking his head. “No fun,” he muttered. Then he looked back at Ronan. “So… Moon Clearing?”

Ronan nodded.

Julien’s grin returned instantly. “Count me in.”

Elias let out a quiet sigh that sounded suspiciously like resignation.

**

The Moon Clearing sat deep within pack territory, surrounded by towering trees that formed a natural barrier around sacred ground. Even from a distance, the damage was obvious. Silver-tainted earth still scarred nearly half the clearing.

Over twenty years ago, a coven of forest witches had detonated a silver bomb above the clearing, releasing a cloud of powdered silver that rained down like poison. The explosion had nearly killed Elias and Julien’s father. It had also nearly destroyed the pack’s connection to the Moon Goddess.

The clearing had always been sacred, a place where wolves could feel Her presence most strongly. Where ceremonies were held. Where bonds were honored.

But now, half of it remained unusable.

Julien let out a low whistle as they stepped into the tree line. “Still looks like shit.”

Elias shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. “Yes,” he said quietly. “It does.”

Ronan scanned the clearing. And spotted him immediately.

Elex stood near the edge of the tainted ground, crouched low as he examined something in the dirt. He didn’t look up when they approached, too focused on whatever had captured his attention. His dark hair stuck out at odd angles, and faint streaks of silver dust stained his gloves. And he was talking to no one in particular, his soft voice carrying across the clearing.

“...lattice stability remains intact under sustained exposure… though alignment variance still exceeds acceptable margins…”

Julien leaned toward Ronan. “Still weird,” he whispered.

Ronan elbowed him. “Still brilliant,” he corrected.

Elex finally noticed them. He blinked once. Then he stood a bit too fast, nearly toppling over before recovering. “You’re late,” he said flatly.

Leave it to Elex to point out someone’s mistake without even a greeting. A lot of people, like Julien, called Elex weird because of his mannerisms and lack of social awareness, but Ronan wouldn’t tolerate it. Elex was his cousin, the son of his uncle Donovan, and like Ronan, he possessed Veriscent abilities.

But unlike Ronan, Elex’s abilities were very similar to his father’s. He could absorb and take on properties of certain elements with controlled exposure. And just like his father, Elex preferred to work with silver, the element that was toxic to werewolves, witches and Veriscents.

Also, like his father, Elex had never manifested a wolf at sixteen. But if it bothered him, he never showed it. Elex had thrown himself into his father’s silver research at an early age and had made it his mission to figure out how to restore the Moon Clearing.

“We’re not late,” Ronan replied. “You’re early.”

“I have been here for four hours,” Elex said matter-of-factly.

Julien whistled. “Of course you have.”

Elex ignored him. “I believe I have identified a potential method to remove silver contamination from the soil.”

Ronan blinked. That got his attention. “You have?”

“Yes.” Elex gestured toward a cluster of stones laid out on a cloth nearby. “I have been expanding on my father’s research into Lunar Chelate Crystals.”

Ronan frowned. “Into what?”

“Moonshards,” Elias said quietly. “That’s the common terminology.”

“Thank you,” Elex said. Then he continued, faster now, words picking up momentum. “Lunar Chelate Crystals form when water rich in dissolved silica seeps into underground cavities. Trace silver particles integrate into the mineral suspension. Under sustained lunar exposure, silver ions stabilize within crystalline lattice structures.”

Julien leaned toward Ronan again. “You understand any of that?”

“Not a damn word,” Ronan muttered.

Elex knelt and picked up a cracked stone. “When fractured,” he said, turning it toward the sunlight, “the internal cavity reveals crystal growth along stabilized lunar-aligned surfaces.”

He split the stone slightly wider. Inside, was a hollow heart lined with pale crystals shimmered softly, catching the light like frozen water.

Ronan stepped closer. That was… impressive.

“These crystals have been absorbing the silver from the ground,” Elex explained. “With enough crystals, we could ideally draw out the silver particles and restore the land to its natural state.”

“How many crystals would that take?” Elias asked quietly.

“I don’t have an exact number yet, but my preliminary estimates are a minimum of at least a thousand.”

Julien whistled. “Where the hell do you find a thousand Moonshards?”

“They’re not common, right?” Ronan asked. “They take centuries to form?”

“Yes,” Elex agreed immediately. “Naturally occurring ones do.”

Ronan narrowed his eyes. “Naturally occurring? Is there a way to speed the process?”

“I am developing a solution,” he said flatly, setting the stone back on the ground.

Julien groaned. “That sounds dangerous.”

“It is not dangerous,” Elex replied. “…probably.”

Julien looked at Ronan. “Definitely dangerous.”

Elias rubbed his forehead.

Ronan exhaled slowly. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt, Lex.”

“No one will get hurt,” he answered immediately.

“I’m including you in that.” Ronan watched his cousin, who refused to meet his gaze.

“I’m also including myself in that,” Elex muttered.

“Okay.” Ronan tried to ignore the unease. “But keep me updated.”

Elex nodded once. “I will.”

Ronan turned slightly, scanning the damaged half of the clearing again. Koda hated it out here, with all the silver in the land and air. Most wolves hated coming out here, but Ronan had listened to his father talk about this place. How much it had meant to the pack in the past, how his own mother had used this place to receive a message from the Moon Goddess during her Luna Trial.

If Elex was right and he could find a way to draw the silver from the ground, they might finally restore what had been lost.