The Alpha's Lost Mate [Completed]

Chapter Twenty Five - The Hospital

**Jamie's POV**

None of us fully relaxed until they brought Gracie in. She was hooked up to all sorts of IVs, but her colour looked better and we could all hear the reliable beat of her heart even without the monitors.

"Come on, Mer, why don't we give them some privacy?" Evan suggested, looking at Meredith akwardly, talking directly to her for the first time since they came in.

"Yeah, we should talk anyway," she muttered, her eyes on the floor as she followed him out and they took a seat on the chairs outside Gracie's room.

"Call if you need anything," Beckett said as he excused himself too, and left me at Gracie's bedside alone.

I held her hand tightly in mine, resting my head on her bed, just drinking in her scent and the sound of her heart. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on the conversation happening outside, but even with their voices quiet enough for no humans to overhear my heightened senses couldn't drown it out.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Evan asked.

"I was going to," Mer whispered back, the fear in her voice breaking my heart all over again. "I wasn't ready for a mate and there you were, literally the second I turned back after my first shift."

"So you don't want this?" He asked coldly.

"Evan, please, I'm trying to explain."

"Sorry, sorry."

"I wasn't expecting to find my mate until the party, I was so overwhelmed when I saw you...." She trailed off and silence blanketed them for a long moment. "I just needed an hour to process. By the time I came to find you you'd gone to the mainland to do intake training with the new hires."

"And you couldn't mind-link? Or call? Text, email, send a letter, nothing?" He asked harshly, anger seeping into his tone.

"It was supposed to be the most important moment of our lives, I didn't want it to happen like that!" She said defensively.

"I'd been back for three days before your party!"

"I just - the longer I waited the bigger a deal it felt that I hadn't told you, I was scared, you're a scary guy," she muttered.

"You're afraid of me?" He asked, sounding horrified.

"A little, yeah," she whispered. "We've never exactly gotten on, I knew you were going to reject me, I was scared."

I heard him rise to his feet suddenly and couldn't help but peek through the slightly ajar door. He looked over her, his face twisted in anger.

"Reject you!?" He hissed. "What the Hell would make you think I'd reject you?"

I couldn't see her face from where I was sat, but I could see that she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye and I sighed to myself, determined not to get involved.

"I - you," her voice cracked with sadness, and I knew she was crying. I felt my hand ball into a fist defensively before Evan sank to his knees in front of her and she finally looked up from the floor. "You hate me."

"Meredith," he whispered, his face falling as he cupped her cheek in his hand. "I don't hate you, how could you think that?"

"You're always mean to me, you've always said you felt bad for whoever ended up being my mate, you've been waiting so patiently to find yours and all along you've been stuck with me," she mumbled, dragging a sleeve across her eyes.

"Listen to me very carefully because I am only going to say this once," he said sternly, taking both her hands in one of his, the other reaching up to hold her chin. "Being your mate is the privilege of my life, I don't hate you, I could never hate you! I Iove you with every fibre of my being, Meredith and nothing will ever change that, I swear. I'm so sorry I ever did anything to make you think otherwise."