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

don’t have a ring for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

kiss Talia one more

pecking Talia on the

you Talia," I

"I love you."

bag and following Tylen towards the door when he

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

of them signs a word and for what

Interesting...

me to be oblivious on

chance to answer me

word, Tylen leans in and kisses her gently

go," he snaps, pushing past me and opening

remain frozen in place, all of us staring

once again yells at me to move, the

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

he shouts back without looking at

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

"B-but Agnes-"

stopping in his

her," I say

"And?"

huffs, walking past

mate.Why

eyes widen in

I ask, completely blindsided by

heard me," he

and I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when

is not an afterthought to me,"

all I think

face me,

hurt her.I just thought you

his father who

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

change

just teleport

opening a portal to what appears

has its limitations," Aurora

I do not know Ravenstone.The

greatly appreciate your help, your

gesturing for us to step

been an honor to be in your

Toran stepping into the

and I follow after him and I take a deep breath

gathered around a table

and recliners are also sparsely spread around the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of

all settle down for a meeting, Toran pulling

are located

peninsula surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote,

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

there is an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and

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

insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable

tells me Sebastian has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs,"

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

main dock on the western front for an

the map intently in search for a solution to

greatly outnumbered,"

utilize guerilla warfare if we want

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

and slip out unseen between the islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and here, and the rest will remain scattered Toran

training over the last few weeks but are still figuring

he

and Tylen will lead a team on the bunker island and make sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker entrance.Zane, due

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

doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift is,"