The Silent Alpha

***Zane*** 

"Please marry me,"

Talia repeats, her eyes full of tears as she sets Kota down on the floor.

"W-what?" I ask, unsure if I just imagined her proposal.

She steps on the tips of her toes, cupping my cheeks in her warm, soft hands and repeating the most wonderful words to ever leave her lips.

"I love you," she murmurs, my heart pounding against my chest as I struggle to hold back my own tears.

"And I just realized that I’m going to wake up tomorrow...And you won’t be there," she shrugs with a sad smile on her face.

"And that scares me," she whimpers softly.

"Because I-I don’t ever want to wake up without you.I want your face to be the last face I see at night and the first one I see every morning...for the rest of my life." I can’t seem to gather my thoughts and for once, Grayson is as useless as I am.

"I used to be so afraid of your love," she whimpers.

"But now I fear living without it.Please marry me, Zane,"

Talia whispers, gently brushing her lips against mine as sparks tingle across my face.

"I want to be your wife."

No words seem sufficient enough to express the blissful joy I feel in my heart right now as my mate kisses me with all her heart, begging to be mine for the rest of our lives.

I grew up thinking the and now it seems surreal to have a mate love me enough to give me her broken heart.

Despite all her fears, Talia loves me and I love her with all of the light of my soul.

"Y-yes," I reply, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"Y-yes.I-I’ll marry y-you."

She smiles against my lips as I accept her over and over again, forgetting the horrible truth of our reality to share a single moment of true happiness with my mate.

She's going to be my wife! Thank Goddess! Grayson howls ecstatically.

I thought we were going to die alone at this rate! lignore my wolf’s commentary, lifting my beautiful mate in my arms as I deepen our kiss.

"Come back to me, Zane," Talia murmurs between kisses.

"You have to come back so I can be your wife." I nod emphatically as I set her down, taking her hand and kissing it.

"I-I promise.I-I promise I’ll come back to y-you and Kota." I cup her cheeks and shower her head with kisses, Kota hopping up and down with excitement.

"Ewww!" Kota squeals, a huge grin on his face as I kiss his mother.

"No more kisses," he shouts, running up to us with his hands in the air.

I bend over and pick him up, Kota placing his hand over my mouth to stop me from kissing him. Aren’t you forgetting something? Grayson says, his tail flicking side to side.

What? I ask, completely confused.

Must I do everything, he sighs tiredly.

A ring, you gump! You need a ring for our mate! Oh! Right! I gasp, realizing I don’t own anything that remotely resembles a ring.

I’ll have to improvise.Pushing his little hand aside, I whisper instructions in Kota’s ear, the little boy nodding obediently and running off to complete his task.

"Zane, we have to go," Tylen insists.

"We don’t have a lot of time-"

"I-l know," I interrupt him, lifting my hand to silence him.

"J-just give m-me one more minute, p-please."

Tylen eyes Talia and I, sighing tiredly to himself as he gives in.

Just then, Kota returns with the four bead bracelet he made for me a while back.

"Here you go, Daddy," Kota says, placing the bracelet in my hand.

I untie the string, removing the pink and blue beads from the bracelet and handing the blue one to Talia.

"K-Kota made this for m-me.It's our family," I explain, pointing to each bead.

ho-holding a piece of m-me and I-I’m

y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we can put

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

when I kiss

nod, pecking Talia on

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

and following Tylen towards the door when

lips and he turns around, storming towards

what seems like

Interesting...

leaving me to

I ask but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag and places it in

word, Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on

he snaps, pushing past

all of us staring

stunned herself but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again yells at

goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

shouts back without looking at me

have to move.Sebastian’s troops will mobilize soon and we have to prepare the

"B-but Agnes-"

in his tracks and

her,"

"And?"

walking past

your mate.Why can’t I

widen

ask, completely blindsided by

heard me," he

not satisfy me and I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen slows down and sighs

an afterthought to

I think

to face me, his

won’t hurt her.I just

greeting his father who is busy speaking with

pretends to not notice his son’s obvious hatred and gestures for me to

change of plans," Toran

"Why not just teleport

opening a portal to

its limitations," Aurora

and I do not know Ravenstone.The airport is as far as

appreciate your help, your

us to step

to be in your

a nod, Toran

and I follow after him and I take a deep breath to

gathered around a table and

the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there

all settle down for a meeting, Toran pulling up a map

Scarlett Haven are located

large peninsula surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands almost three miles off the

where most of the pack lives and equipment,

an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a series of

camouflaged on the

the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my father

of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using a laser

distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds, pointing to

reaches our main dock on the western front for an

they study the map intently in search for a solution

are greatly outnumbered," Tylen

assume we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

to strike and slip out unseen between the islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and here, and the rest will remain scattered Toran stops mid sentence and studies me

me you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though it is not really

silently and he thinks for a

island and make sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war experience, you will follow all of Tylen’s instructions

father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping

kn-know what m-my gift is," I