"Thank you," I tell Amber and Garrett. The wolf nods and carries his half-conscious mate from the room.
"Oh my God." Denali lets out a breath. The tears she's bravely kept at bay track down her cheeks. I wrap her in my arms.
Parker and Declan return, carrying bags of food. "Time to fuel up." They pass around packs of meat.
I accept my share, ripping open the package and taking a bite of raw steak.
"Garrett's gang went to four grocery stores and cleaned them out," Parker tells me. "Jackson is still working on getting coordinates with Kylie, but Amber's intel helped. The jet is almost ready. We'll head to Garrett's brother-in-law's place in Mexico, treat that as HQ."
I gulp down a mouthful of beef. "All right. After this we'll roll out."
"I'll spread the word."
"Parker." I catch his arm before he leaves. "Thanks." I turn to Declan and Laurie who are waiting by the door. "You too. I can't-" my throat closes. "I can't thank you enough."
"You got it," Declan says. "Alpha."
"Alpha," the other two echo, and for once, I let the title stand.
DENALI
I CAN'T BREATHE. Can't think. The trip to Mexico City is a blur. We arrive past dark and drive a couple hours up to Garrett's sister's place.
Sedona, Garrett's youthful sister, greets us on the steps of the palatial hacienda and leads us to a suite of rooms. She's a wolf, like most of them, and her scent has a tinge of breastmilk to it. She has a nursing pup.
"Carlos is meeting with his pack. They all want to fight."
"My best fighters are on their way," Garrett tells her after a big hug. "Kylie's doing her best to find Santiago's trail in Honduras. Between her intel and Amber's visions, we should have a location soon."
Sedona shows us to our rooms. Amber and Garrett claim one immediately-the human looks dead on her feet. Laurie, Parker, and Declan have disappeared, and after kissing my forehead, Nash heads out, probably to talk to Jackson and Carlos.
"Is there anything I can bring you?" Sedona asks, and I realize she's talking to me. We're standing in a beautiful bedroom that I have no energy to appreciate. My ears are filled with cotton, my whole body numb.
"I'm fine. I should try to sleep. I couldn't on the plane."
She grimaces sympathetically, touches my shoulder and leaves me alone.
I lie down, but toss and turn, dropping off for a few minutes or so before rising. My lioness wants to prowl. I pad down the hallway, stopping by a half open door. A screen flickers on the far side of the room-footage of some sort. A cell. Whoever's watching fast forwards until a prisoner comes into view. I stifle a gasp. It's Nash-but not as I've ever seen him. He's barefooted, bare-chested in ragged fatigues. Body ravaged, emaciated. A shell of the soldier he once was and the fighter he is now. He looks half dead, but for those burning amber eyes.
Breathing hard, I push the door open.
"Denali?" Sam rises from where he was watching the screen. "I didn't know you were there."
"Is that-?"
"Footage from Data-X. I'm rewatching for clues." The young wolf looks exhausted. No-haunted. I try to remember what Nash told me, but all his friends are blending together. Was Sam a prisoner of Data-X, too?
"What did they do to him?"
Sam shrugs. "Testing. Torture." He absently rubs his arm, wincing as if in pain. "Smyth tried to push the limits of the shifters in his experiments."
"You were there, too," I guess. I know Sam's the connection with the Tucson pack. It fits.
His eyes are ancient in his youthful face. "Yeah."
We look at each other. There's nothing more to be said, because we both lived through it. So did Declan and Laurie and Parker. That's why they stick close to Nash. We've all been irreparably damaged by Data-X.
My glance flicks back to the image of Nash. I should've gone back for him. I'll never forgive myself. "I…" I clear my throat. "I didn't know it got that bad."
"He's tough. He survived."
"Not all of him." This is what he's been fighting. My vision blurs.
"You lose a part of yourself when you're tortured. When someone tries to reduce you to nothing." Sam turns off the screen, but it's too late. Nash's image is burned into my mind forever.
My chest heaves, my lungs like a bird fluttering, trying to take flight from a snare. Everything in me hurts so bad. Our cub missing. My mate damaged, possibly beyond repair.
"I didn't go back. I was pregnant and so scared. I had no one. It was all I could do to survive." Even as I repeat my excuses they fall flat, but Sam touches my arm.
"No. Going back would've been suicide. I waited and planned for years before I went back for my revenge and I had no one to lose. Not until I met Layne."
"You're the one who blew up the labs?"
He nods.
"With Nash?"
He hesitates. "I freed Nash. Then he helped me find Smyth."
He freed Nash. That's what I should've done. "How do I help him?"
"You don't do anything. Just be. Be who you are. Be his mate."
My hand goes to my shoulder, gripping the healed mark hidden under my shirt. "I don't know if I can."
"You can," Sam says. "I'm sure you can. If I can heal, so can he." Somehow, I believe him. He's young, but he just found his mate, Layne. "He's broken, Denali. His spirit is fractured, but he just needs his missing pieces. You know what they are?"
I nod. "His son, and his mate." Nolan... and me.