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.

a piece of m-me and

to c-come back so w-we can put

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

kiss Talia

nod, pecking Talia on

you Talia," I

"I love you."

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

turns around, storming towards Agnes

of them signs a word and for what seems like an eternity, they simply

Interesting...

leaving me to be

I ask but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag and places it in

gently on the cheek before turning away and leaving

go," he snaps, pushing past

frozen in place, all of us staring at

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

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking at

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

"B-but Agnes-"

He says, stopping in his tracks and looking

kissed her,"

"And?"

huffs, walking past

mate.Why

eyes widen in

completely blindsided by his

heard me," he

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

not an afterthought

I

turns to face me,

her.I just thought

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

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

have a change

Majesty "Why not just teleport

a portal to what appears to be a private

has its

I do

appreciate your help,

gesturing for us to step through the

an honor to be

Toran stepping

take a deep breath to calm my nerves as we board our

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

around the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and

down for a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of

are located along the Samish

surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote,

is a main island where most of the pack lives

abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and

perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with layers of concrete and steel protecting

it contains an impenetrable fortress my

eastern side of the

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

on the

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

are greatly outnumbered,"

will have to utilize guerilla warfare if we want

"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

over the last few weeks but are

he thinks for

and Tylen will lead a team on the bunker island and make sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war experience, you will follow all of Tylen’s instructions without

your gift does your father

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