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

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!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

nod, pecking Talia on

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

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

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

one of them signs a word and for what seems like

Interesting...

himself, leaving me to be oblivious on my

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

gently on the cheek before turning away

snaps, pushing past me and opening the

in place, all of

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

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

time," he shouts back without looking

and we have to

"B-but Agnes-"

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

kissed her," I say

"And?"

walking

kiss your mate.Why

widen in

ask, completely

me,"

answer does not satisfy me and I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen slows

is not an afterthought to

all I

face me,

won’t hurt her.I just

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

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

change of plans,"

"Why not just teleport us

opening a

has its limitations," Aurora

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

greatly appreciate your help, your

bows, gesturing for us to step

honor to be in

a nod, Toran stepping into

him and I take a deep breath to calm my nerves as we board

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

the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there

meeting, Toran pulling

Scarlett Haven are located along the Samish

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

most of the pack lives and

of the island ring, there is an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a

old silo has been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with layers of concrete and steel protecting

island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains

tells me Sebastian has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using a laser pointer to indicate

will have a smaller crew jump along

dock on

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

are greatly

we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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 stops mid sentence and studies me for

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

silently and he thinks

find the bunker

of your gift does your father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping

doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift