The Alpha's Lost Mate [Completed]

Chapter Fifteen: The Donuts

I woke slowly, comfortably, and looked around confused. The room had baby-blue walls, which framed the sliding doors to a deck overlooking the crystal waters perfectly. I was wrapped haphazardly in a thick comforter, and nothing felt familiar. I untangled myself, my heart beginning to race, and sat on the edge of the bed clutching my stomach. The sound of waves crashing against the shore drifted in through the slightly cracked doors and made my stomach churn. How did I get here? I couldn't stop my mind from racing as fast as my heart was, and my breaths started to become more difficult.

Suddenly the door flew open, and I heard something smash on the ground, which startled me into tears. Quicker than it should have been possible, there were hands on my shoulders, stroking my face, and a voice tried to force itself to be heard over the sound of blood rushing to my ears.

"Gracie? Gracie, what's wrong? What happened?" The voice asked desperately, familiarly. I opened my eyes slowly to see Jamie knelt on the floor in front of me, looking frantic, and finally, a breath came to me. He yanked me off the bed into his arms and sank into the floor. "You scared the life out of me!"

"I'm sorry," I choked out, clutching his t-shirt and breathing in his comforting smell, trying to calm the tears that wouldn't stop flowing.

"We need to call the pack doctor," he insisted, getting to his feet and picking me up I to his arms with ease.

"No, no I'm fine really, I just didn't recognise the room, I thought for a second Cain had gotten hold of me again, I'm okay really," I stuttered, realising that the wave of paralysing fear I'd felt was a fear of losing Jamie.

"You had a panic attack," he realized out loud. "You weren't breathing, I thought something was really wrong."

"I'm sorry," I sobbed, burying my face into his shoulder. He weaved his fingers through my hair and hugged me impossibly tighter.

"Don't be sorry, none of this is your fault," he murmured into my ear. He sat us both down in a large wooden chair on the deck, letting me breathe in the ocean air mingled with his scent for a long time.

"I'm okay, really, I'm just glad I'm safe with you," I whispered eventually, once I'd finally got my heart rate to slow down, and leaned up to kiss him. He trailed kisses from my lips, across my cheeks, wiping the last few tears away with his lips, landing on my forehead which he kissed multiple times before leaning forwards and resting his against it.

"You'll always be safe with me, I promise," he vowed. "Would you like to get out of here for a bit and have some fun?"

"Fun sounds like fun," I whispered. "What are we gonna do?"

He leaned back and smirked at me. "Now that would be telling. Just get dressed, let me handle the surprises."

I huffed as I got to my feet. I hated surprises.

                        ~

One disagreement on clothing choices, one re-made cup of coffee, one broken mug cleaned up from beside the bed and one forty-minute drive later, a city slowly rose in front of us.

"Where are we?" I asked, and Jamie squeezed my knee, smiling at me briefly from the driver's seat.

"This is Swansea, it's a small city, I think you'll like it," he said.

"You've been before?"

"A few times. As I said, my parents visited Osian's parents as much as they could, so I spent most of my childhood holidays out here in the Gower. We would come into the city most times we visited, to go to the water-park or bowling or the cinema," he explained.

"Is that what we're doing today?" I asked, and he grinned.

"Nice try," he teased.

He navigated the early-morning traffic expertly like he'd driven the road a thousand times before, and soon he had parked on a small back road and was leading me through the city center, hand-in-hand. A familiar, intoxicating smell was driving me crazy until I finally realized where it was coming from: a donut stand on the high street. I came to a sudden stop, trying to work out why it was so familiar.

"Fairground," I suddenly blurted.

"What?" Jamie asked, turning to look at me.

"Fairground. I was spinning really, really fast, and I was laughing so hard and it smelled like donuts. Fairground," I mumbled, trying to articulate what I could feel, what I could see.

"Gracie, are you- are you remembering something?" He asked, grabbing both my hands in his.

"I think so? It's so blurry and far away and echoey, but yes?" I replied, feeling tears prick at my eyes for the second time that day, only this time they were happy tears.

He grinned and swept me into a hug, picking me up and spinning me around. "This is incredible! The Moon Goddess said that seeing her might mean you could start to remember, but I didn't think it would be this soon!"

"I can't believe the first thing I remember is the smell of donuts at the fair," I laughed, wiping the tears away.

"The first thing you remembered is a joyful memory, there'll be many more to come, I'm sure," he said, his smile wide.

"Yeah," I realized, a wave of unexpected sadness washing over me. Something in my subconscious doubted his words.

"We need to get donuts to celebrate!" He exclaimed.

And he did. Two big bags full, and we took them out of the city center onto some huge concrete steps leading down to the bay that swept across the entire length of the city, and we sat for hours talking about the fairground enjoying our donuts.