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.

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

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

I kiss Talia one more

I nod, pecking Talia on

love you

"I love you."

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

he turns around, storming towards

and for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand before

Interesting...

me to be oblivious

answer me as

and kisses her gently on the cheek before turning away

past me and opening the

frozen in place, all of us staring at

stunned herself but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again yells at me to move, the sound of his booming voice startling

before running

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

shouts back without looking

will mobilize soon and we have to prepare the islands before they

"B-but Agnes-"

stopping in his tracks and looking

kissed her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking past

mate.Why can’t

eyes widen

I ask, completely blindsided by

me," he

clear my throat to

is not an afterthought

I

face me, his features

hurt her.I just thought you

walks away again, greeting his father who is

his son’s obvious

have a change of plans,"

just teleport

and opening a portal to what appears

its limitations,"

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

I greatly appreciate your

us to step through

an honor to be in your

nod, Toran stepping into the portal

him and I take a deep breath to calm my nerves

with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on a wall near the end of

sparsely spread around the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to make

all settle down for a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on the

located

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

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

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

camouflaged on the island, buried

insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress

soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using a laser pointer

know this is likely a distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he

main dock on the

they study the map intently in search for a solution to this

are greatly outnumbered," Tylen

to utilize guerilla warfare if we want

"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 and studies me for a

training over the last few weeks but are

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 to your lack of war experience, you will follow all

father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping his eyes on

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