The Lost Alpha Prince (Book 15 of the Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 17

Kyra Remington relaxed quietly in her mate's arms, though her mind was far away. She still couldn't believe her son was missing. Her heart ached for him, knowing what he'd already been through. But there was nothing she could do about it. He was long gone and they had no idea where he was.

When the plane crash had happened, she had gone with her mate, Cole, and several other members of her pack to Missouri where the crash had happened. It was the first time one of their planes had crashed. The pilots had come upon a sudden storm with violent winds that had ripped the plane apart. Damien and the pilots had all three been found easily.

They'd all been badly injured, and it had taken some finagling on their doctor's part to get all three of them under their care before their injuries could fully heal in an unprecedented way. Fortunately, the pack had a plan in place in case something like this happened and they were able to have all three three pack members on their way home within hours of the crash and in care of Regal Eclipse's own doctors. 

Kyra shuddered at the memory of seeing them and how badly they'd all three been burned. Bones had been broken that needed to be reset and all three had suffered with pieces of the plane penetrating body parts. It had taken Ben and Tyler hours to get all of the shrapnel removed so that their bodies could start healing properly. Kyra knew without a shadow of a doubt that if they'd been human, they would have never survived that crash. If they'd been normal werewolves their chances of survival would have been limited.

All three were fully recovered now, but it had taken a few days because of the damage that had been done to them, but they were all fine. Both pilots had asked for a break which, of course, the pack had no problem with. Malachi had asked them straight out if they wanted to even fly again but both men said that they would. They just needed some time on the solid ground.

Damien had also asked for a break from his liaison schedule. He'd wanted to spend some time with his mate, Vanessa, his twin, Dylan, and Dylan's mate, Violet. Vanessa was a hybrid now and Damien and Dylan had grown much closer over the last several weeks. Finding their mates had been good for both men. Kyra also knew that they had taken a trip to Ohio to see Vanessa's parents and gather Vanessa's things and inform them of the changes to her life. They chose to drive as Damien wasn't thrilled with the idea of getting back on a plane so quickly. Kyra couldn't blame him. 

But Xavier hadn't been at the plane crash sight. They'd spent a great deal of time searching for him, searching through the wreckage and the surrounding area trying to find her son, but he was gone. They'd ended up setting up a command center at a local hotel, getting several rooms for quite some time while they searched for Xavier. But he had disappeared without a trace

It wasn't until Alpha Tate from the Ozarks Pack had called them that Kyra had started to get hope again. It was their first lead even though it had led to a dead end. That had been almost three months ago. And given that they knew Xavier had gotten on a truck, he could literally be anywhere. 

But it was what had happened to him after the crash that had broken Kyra's heart. Tate had handed over the laptop that they'd retrieved from the lab. Trevor and Micah had spent a great deal of time combing through it. Someone had kept careful notes of what had happened with Xavier, and all of what he'd been through for the first three weeks that he'd been missing. 

Apparently someone had found him before they'd arrived on the scene. The paramedics who had responded to the crash had gotten him on their ambulance and been working on him when one of them realized something was off with him. They'd chosen to take him to their own lab instead of to the hospital. They'd made any records of his existence as far as the hospital was concerned completely disappear.

They'd removed any shrapnel from his body, and had been shocked at how quickly he'd healed. Apparently Xavier hadn't suffered with as many burns as the other three had. But that's when they started experimenting on him. They'd performed brain surgery; something neither one of them was sure he would survive. But he had. Trevor hadn't told Kyra too many details. He'd told her straight out that he wouldn't. He'd said that reading those notes had made him nauseous and some things, for her own peace of mind, she just didn't need to know.

But Cole did. He'd insisted on reading over the notes himself, saying that he needed to know everything. He'd needed to know exactly what had happened to his son. He come back to her looking broken, and told her the same thing Trevor had. She didn't need to know. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, but for now she went with it, trusting Cole. But Kyra could tell that it had really affected him. He hadn't slept much since then, worried about Xavier, knowing what he'd been through. 

She knew they'd figured out that Xavier was a werewolf and apparently they had known about werewolves before they'd found him. They knew his blood had healing powers and none of the other werewolves they'd taken had that same ability. Neither Micah nor Trevor thought that they had figured out that Xavier was able to change humans into werewolves and that was a relief. That knowledge was even more dangerous than the fact that he was able to heal others with his blood.

But they had taken quite a bit of his blood from him. They drained 75% of it from his body every twenty-four hours and stored it at the facility with plans to sell it on the black market. They had  discovered that his body would replenish his blood supply rather quickly, making it easy for them to acquire plenty of it. 

Kyra had cried for her son after hearing that. No one deserved to go through what he had. She had researched what happened when you lost a lot of blood and it had broken her heart. He'd been through too much and he was so young still. He didn't deserve to be treated like that. No one did.

She half wished she'd been the one to find Xavier's captors. She wouldn't have been kind. They would have regretted ever knowing about werewolves, and messing with her pup. They would have seen death as a mercy. But they were both dead already. 

Trevor said it was possible someone else might know their secrets and he had set up a program that would scan the web, looking for anything related directly to Xavier's blood. So far nothing had turned up, though that didn't put her at ease, and she knew it didn't put any of the rest of them at ease either. But if something ever did they would have to follow up with it and make sure nothing ever came of it. Pack secrets had to be kept and this was the closest they'd ever come to word getting out.

Ben and Tyler had done quite a bit of research regarding Xavier's brain with the medical file they received from Dr. Santos along with the information on the laptop. His captors had managed to keep Xavier unconscious for several days while they had monitored his brain activity. Ben had been a little bit amazed at their knowledge. "This guy could have made a brilliant doctor if he hadn't got off track somewhere. Who knows where, but he's a genius, or was."

Micah seemed to think that one of the guys might have actually been a werewolf, though it was hard to tell. There were no notes on how they found out about werewolves in the first place. Most of their note-taking had been dedicated to Xavier and the other wolves they had taken from the Ozark Pack. They'd been rather disappointed to find out that their blood did not work the same way as Xavier's did. But they had been aware that they were keeping him disconnected from both his wolf and his memories. That had been the goal and they were pleased that it didn't seem to affect his healing at all.

After hearing everything and discussing it with Cole, both he and Kyra could fully understand why Xavier had taken off from the pack clinic at Ozark. They could see how he'd been afraid of being taken captive again after that weeks of having been tortured.

But they also were aware of the fact that once he had gotten on that truck, finding him would be almost impossible. They had no idea if he was still on it or if he'd just taken it to another state and gotten off. Ragnar had told them both that he could have literally crossed the country numerous times in the last ten weeks if he was still on that truck. And Ben and Tyler both seem to think that he would never get his memories back as long as that thing was still in his brain.

Kyra knew they might possibly never see him again. She didn't like to think about it but she knew it was a possibility. The idea of It made her sick but until something broke, there was nothing they could do to find him. 

She sighed softly against Cole, aware that he was lost in thought too. Both of them were aching over this, and it brought up memories of when she'd lost her first mate. At least she knew Xavier was out there somewhere and not dead. 

Cole's arms tightened around her, though he didn't say anything. They both just needed each other for comfort at this point.