The Alpha's Lost Mate [Completed]

Chapter One: The cellar

I woke, groggily, clawing myself into an upright position. The concrete was cold underneath my palms and my head was spinning. The air hung heavily around me with distinct misty sunlight that told me it was dawn. Too early. The sun was always in full force by the time I woke up. If there was one constant I could hold on to it was that. I grabbed at my tangled hair, pressing my cold hands against my scalp in an attempt to calm down the dizzying headache, and that was when I realized why I had been dragged from my induced sleep earlier than normal. Vicious snarls were echoing down the corridor, accompanied by the sounds of the cage-like doors being struggled with.

"You'll never get away with this!" A female voice that barely sounded human snarled.

She was just met with an all too familiar dark chuckle as He locked the door on her. A horrendous volley of noises ensued; what sounded like every bone in her body cracking and breaking, followed by a sudden silence. His footsteps echoed down the long hallway, making me cringe into the brick wall. My hands instinctively untangled themselves from my hair to shield my face as he came to a stop outside my cell.

"You weren't supposed to hear that," He said coolly as he stepped inside.

I whimpered as He snatched my hands away from my face; I didn't have the energy left to fight Him off as he tilted my chin up with His calloused thumb. We both knew there was no use in me struggling, so He dropped my hands and I quickly reached into the small patch of dirt next to me and drew one more hasty line into it. If nothing else, I was determined to know how long He kept me here. He never gave me any information, no matter how much I pleaded with him for answers. Why was he keeping me here? What was he going to do with me? The one question I could answer for myself was how long he held me captive for.

I reluctantly looked up and met His frosty blue eyes. On anybody else, they would have been the most beautiful and enrapturing eyes on Earth. On Him, they were terrifyingly cold and heartless. I didn't understand it, or Him. But the second His eyes made contact with mine horrifying chills went down my body. It was like He could reach right into my soul and alter my very being.

"Sleep," He commanded, and my eyes drooped. He dropped my face abruptly and stood, towering over me as I slid down the freezing wall. I almost landed in the dirt and had just enough time to note my tallies before I succumbed to the darkness he blanketed me in. 27 days.

When I woke, many hours later I guessed by the position of the sun outside the tiny vent near the ceiling, the grogginess had mostly gone. I didn't feel myself, not that I knew what that was anymore, but I knew it wasn't this. The feeling of my brain having to wade through a swamp to make any half-tangible thoughts had become my new normal in the last 27 days. The not-quite-human girl was still silent, though I couldn't see her through the bars of my door. My stomach grumbled and I sighed, slithering down the back wall, hugging myself to brace against the cold. I rested my head back and stayed there for several more hours. I tried hard to piece together my life before these 27 days, but I couldn't. Since He commanded me to forget, I've been a stranger to my own memories.

The sun had barely begun to set when I heard the main door click open and I jumped, trying hard to keep my breathing under control. He came everyday with food as soon as darkness fell over the cellar, and then he unlocked my door and allowed me to shower. Every day was the same. I could feel my heart beating in my throat as I wondered why everything was early today.

The soft footsteps that fell on my ears were not His.

"Sarah?" A strange, soft voice whispered from the other end of the hall.

The girl from earlier growled gently in response; she grabbed the bars on her door, her fingers crooked, black and blue, and her dull grey eyes made contact with mine as she raised one finger to her lips.

"Finn, here," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

He appeared from around the corner, his back to me as he grabbed her hand through the bars.

"Goddess, what the Hell did he do to you?" He muttered.

"Finn shut up and focus, there's a human in the cell behind you, we need to get her the Hell out of here," Sarah hissed.

Finn spun on his heels and crossed the wide corridor at an ungodly speed, his mouth open in horror.

"What's your name?" He asked me quietly.

"The girl who was here before me said her name's Grace, she's been out for 3 weeks though, I don't know where the other girl, her name is Jen, I don't know where she's gone, I think he might have killed her..." Sarah whimpered, panic rising in her voice making her words run into eachother and overlap.

What did she mean out for 3 weeks, I wondered silently, still taking in the intense gaze of the man stood before me. His shirt was ripped across one shoulder, blood soaking the edges. His dirty blonde hair was matted with dirt and sweat, falling into his face which framed black eyes consumed with anger.

"Sarah, I'm so sorry, but I need you to pull yourself together," he said, still not moving his gaze from me. "Grace, Gracie, can I call you Gracie?"

I nodded reluctantly.

"Okay Gracie, you were not part of the plan today and things are about to get really, really fucking crazy, but I'm gonna need you to trust me. I'm Finn, I know we just met, but I need you to trust me so I can get you both out of here, okay?"

His eyes finally softened a little, almost pleading with me themselves. I took a deep, shaky breath and nodded.

I'd barely moved my head to signal yes before he punched the lock on my door, swung it open and scooped me up. I squeaked and grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and he mumbled encouraging words as he smashed Sarah's lock and pulled her out.

"I'm good," she insisted, brushing his hands away.

"Okay, let's go," he said gruffly, setting off in a run down the corridor

He was dizzyingly fast, even carrying me, the world around me almost blurred. In seconds we had climbed two flights of stairs from the cellar, slipped out of the house and reached the tree line on the far side of the lawn where were met by another staggeringly large man leaning against a blacked out SUV. He crushed Sarah in a brief hug, his eyes wildly surveying everything, and ushered her into the back seat.

"Who's this?" He asked sharply, turning back to Finn.

"This is Gracie. She's human," Finn said simply. This seemed to mean something to the new person because his eyes widened and he swore under his breath.

"Okay, let's get her back to the packhouse. Jamie will know what to do with her," he said, and Finn put me down in the back seat before slamming the door shut. They were both in the front seats in seconds and the car was speeding down a country lane before I could even register I was in it.

"Here, let me help," Sarah said gently as she pulled my seatbelt around me. Out of the light of the cellar I could see her face fully. Her lip was cut and swollen, and a huge bruise danced around and underneath her right eye. I reached out and touched her cheek gently, her skin boiling to the touch.

"He hurt you?" I whispered.

"It's nothing, really, I heal quick," she said, turning away. "Get some sleep Grace, it's a long drive."

The gentle hum of the car's engine was making me sleepy. I rested my head against the cool window and watched the fields whizz by as I dropped off. They didn't look familiar.