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.

piece of m-me and I-I’m holding a

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one

I nod, pecking Talia on

you Talia,"

"I love you."

towards the door when he

and he turns around, storming towards Agnes

word and for what seems like an eternity, they

Interesting...

hums to himself, leaving me to be oblivious on my

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

leans in and kisses her gently on

he snaps, pushing past

place, all of us

once again

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking at me as I catch

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

"B-but Agnes-"

in his tracks

kissed her," I say

"And?"

walking

mate.Why can’t

widen in

ask, completely blindsided by

me,"

answer does not satisfy me and I clear my throat to

an afterthought to

I

me, his features strong and

just thought you should

his father who is busy speaking

notice his son’s obvious hatred and gestures for

have a change of

"Why not just teleport us

and opening a portal to what appears to

its limitations," Aurora

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

I greatly appreciate your help,

for us

to be in your

compliment with a nod, Toran stepping into the portal with

a deep breath to calm my

gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on a wall near the end

and there

meeting, Toran pulling up

Haven are located along the Samish Bay in

surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands

most of the pack lives

abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels connect the islands to

on the island,

uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my father

has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the

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

dock on the western front for

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

greatly

we will have to utilize guerilla warfare

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and here, and the rest will remain scattered Toran stops mid sentence and studies me for a moment, his lips pressed firmly into a

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

nod silently and he

don’t find the bunker

gift does your father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping

gift is," I reply