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.

m-me

have a ring for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we can put our fam-family bead in my

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one more

I nod, pecking Talia on the

love you

"I love you."

on my heel, grabbing my bag and following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly halts, his jaw clenching as he

and he turns around, storming towards Agnes who stares at him with

a word and for what seems

Interesting...

me

chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag and places it in

Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on the cheek

go," he snaps, pushing past me and opening

frozen in place, all of us staring at Agnes in

herself but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again

a fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

looking at me as I catch

troops will mobilize soon and we

"B-but Agnes-"

about Agnes?" He says, stopping in his tracks

kissed her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking

kiss your mate.Why can’t I

eyes widen

I ask, completely blindsided by

me," he

satisfy me and I clear my throat to demand a

afterthought to me,"

I think

to face me,

just thought

and walks away again, greeting his father who

not notice his son’s obvious

change of plans," Toran

Majesty "Why not just teleport us to

a portal to what appears to be

gift has its

I have been and I do not know Ravenstone.The airport is as

appreciate

gesturing for us to

to be

nod, Toran stepping into the portal with his

and I take a deep

leather seats gathered around a table and

a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to make our trip as comfortable

for a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone

and Scarlett Haven are located along the Samish

Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands almost three

main island where most of the pack lives and equipment, food,

silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels connect the

silo has been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine

insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my father can’t

the island near the bluffs," Toran

this is likely a distraction and he will have a smaller

dock on the western front for

Tylen fall silent as they study the map intently in search for a solution to

greatly

to utilize guerilla warfare if we want

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

have teams stationed here, here and

but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though it is not

silently and he thinks

find the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war

does your father

what m-my gift is," I reply