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 and I-I’m holding a piece

yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we can put our fam-family bead in

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one

pecking

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

when he suddenly halts, his jaw

turns around, storming towards Agnes who stares at him

for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand

Interesting...

leaving me to be

ask but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly

her gently on the cheek

snaps, pushing past me and opening

all of

but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again yells at me to move,

jump in a fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking

and we

"B-but Agnes-"

about Agnes?" He says, stopping in his tracks and looking at

her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking

kiss your mate.Why can’t I

widen in

ask, completely blindsided by

heard me," he

me and I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen slows down and

an afterthought to

all I

face me, his features

won’t hurt her.I just

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

his son’s obvious hatred and gestures for me to step

change of plans,"

Majesty "Why not just

a portal to what appears to be a

has its limitations," Aurora

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

I greatly appreciate

for us to step through the

been an honor to be

with a nod, Toran stepping into

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves

table and a large monitor mounted on a wall near the end of the

a sophisticated atmosphere and there is

Toran pulling up

are located

but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands

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

island ring, there is an abandoned missile silo located on a

perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with

and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable

side of the island near

all these years, I know this is likely a distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds, pointing to a trail of other islands

he reaches our main dock on the western front for

they study the map intently

greatly

will have to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

the islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and here, and the rest will remain scattered

you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your

he thinks

the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war experience, you will follow all of Tylen’s instructions without question,"

father understand?" Tylen

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