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.

ho-holding a piece of m-me and I-I’m holding

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

when I kiss Talia

pecking Talia on the

you Talia,"

"I love you."

my bag and following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly halts, his jaw clenching as he places his

turns around,

a word and for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand

Interesting...

himself, leaving me to

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

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

he snaps, pushing past me

remain frozen in place, all of us

ask questions, Tylen once again yells at me to move, the sound of

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

shouts back without looking

move.Sebastian’s troops will mobilize soon and we

"B-but Agnes-"

says, stopping in

kissed her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking

kiss your mate.Why

widen

I ask, completely blindsided by his

me," he

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

an afterthought to me,"

I

face me, his features strong and

her.I just thought you

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

obvious

have a change

not just teleport us

her wrist and opening a portal to what appears

has its

teleport to places I have been and I do not know

appreciate your help, your

bows, gesturing for us

an honor to be in your

a nod, Toran stepping into the portal with his

I take a deep breath to calm

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

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

for a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on

located along the

but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned

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

on a

into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on

it contains an impenetrable fortress my

the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using

likely a distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds, pointing to a trail of other islands

main dock on the western front for

fall silent as they study the map

are greatly

have to utilize guerilla warfare

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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

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

silently and he thinks for a

lead a team on the bunker island and make sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker

does your father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping his eyes

kn-know what m-my gift is," I reply with a