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

for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

nod, pecking Talia on the

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

and following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly halts,

and he turns around, storming towards Agnes who stares

and for what seems

Interesting...

to himself, leaving me to be

to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his

in and kisses her gently on the cheek before turning away and

go," he snaps, pushing past me

place, all of us staring

again yells at me to move,

fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

back without looking

and we have to prepare

"B-but Agnes-"

stopping in his tracks and

her," I say

"And?"

huffs, walking

mate.Why can’t I

widen

completely blindsided by his

me,"

clear my throat to demand a proper

an afterthought to me," he

all I

to face me, his

her.I just

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

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

have a change of

"Why not just teleport us to

Aurora flicking her wrist and opening a portal to what

gift has its limitations," Aurora

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

appreciate your

bows, gesturing for us to

been an honor to

a nod, Toran stepping into the portal with

after him and I take a deep breath

gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on a wall

create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to

Toran pulling up a map

and Scarlett Haven are located along

large peninsula surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote,

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

located on a fifth island and

bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with

uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my

has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near

a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds,

our main dock on

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

greatly

we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if we

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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 will remain scattered Toran

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

he thinks

and make sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker

father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping

what m-my gift