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.

of m-me and I-I’m holding

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

nod, pecking

you Talia," I

"I love you."

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

growl leaves his lips and he turns around,

word and for what seems like an

Interesting...

leaving me to be oblivious on my

gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag

and kisses her gently

pushing past me and

all of

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

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

he shouts back without looking at me as

and we have to prepare

"B-but Agnes-"

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

kissed her,"

"And?"

walking past

mate.Why can’t

widen

ask, completely

heard me,"

my throat to

afterthought to me," he

I think

turns to face me, his features

her.I just thought

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

son’s obvious hatred and

change of plans,"

Majesty "Why not just teleport us

wrist and opening a portal to what appears to

has its limitations," Aurora

teleport to places I have been and I do not know

appreciate your

bows, gesturing for us to

honor to be

with a nod, Toran stepping into the portal with his

and I follow after him and I take a deep breath to calm

a table

to create a sophisticated atmosphere and

all settle down for a meeting, Toran pulling up a

are located along the Samish Bay

but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five

where most of the pack

the island ring, there is an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels connect the islands to

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

an outsider, the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable

his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs,"

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

reaches our main dock on the western front for an

map intently in search for a solution to this

greatly outnumbered,"

assume we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if we

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

yet located the 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

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

and he thinks for

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

does your father understand?"

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