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.

of m-me and I-I’m holding a piece of

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

when I kiss Talia

nod, pecking Talia on

love you Talia,"

"I love you."

Tylen towards the door when he suddenly halts, his jaw clenching as he places

small growl leaves his lips and he turns around, storming towards Agnes who stares at

and for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand

Interesting...

leaving me to be oblivious on

answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog

gently on the cheek before turning away and

pushing past me and opening the

frozen in place, all of us staring at Agnes in

Tylen once again yells at me to move, the sound of his booming voice startling

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

looking at

will mobilize soon and

"B-but Agnes-"

Agnes?" He says, stopping in his

her,"

"And?"

walking past

kiss your mate.Why can’t I kiss

eyes widen in

ask, completely blindsided by

heard me,"

my throat to demand a proper explanation,

is not an afterthought to me," he

I

face me, his features strong and

just

and walks away again, greeting his father who is busy speaking with

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

a change of plans,"

not just teleport

opening a portal to what appears

its limitations," Aurora

to places I have been and I do not know Ravenstone.The

appreciate your

us to step through

been an honor to be in your

compliment with a nod, Toran stepping

take a deep breath to calm my nerves as we

luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on a wall near the end of the

spread around the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight

meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on

and Scarlett Haven are located along the Samish Bay

ocean but Ravenstone is very remote,

most of the pack

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

into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried

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

me Sebastian has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island

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

he reaches our main dock on the western front for

they study the map intently in search for a

greatly outnumbered," Tylen

we will have to utilize guerilla

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

not yet located the entrances to our tunnels so we'll use them to our advantage to strike and slip out unseen between the islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and here, and the rest

been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though

silently and he

sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war

how much of your gift does your father understand?"

father doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift is," I