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

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one more

pecking Talia on the

love you Talia,"

"I love you."

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

his lips and he turns around, storming towards

of them signs a word and for what seems

Interesting...

hums to himself, leaving me

never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag and

another word, Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on the cheek before

he snaps, pushing past

frozen in place, all of us staring

questions, Tylen once again yells

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking at me as I catch

and we have to prepare the

"B-but Agnes-"

in his tracks and looking

kissed her,"

"And?"

walking

mate.Why can’t I kiss

widen in

ask, completely

heard me,"

not satisfy me and I clear my throat to demand a proper

afterthought to

all I think

turns to face me,

hurt her.I just thought you should know

his father who

son’s obvious hatred and gestures for me to step

have a change of plans,"

"Why not just teleport

and opening a portal to what appears to

has its

places I have been and I do not know

greatly appreciate

us to step

to be

Toran stepping into the portal with his

after him and I take a deep breath to calm my nerves as we board our

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

sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants

meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on

located along the Samish Bay in

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

of the pack lives and equipment, food, and the training

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

been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with layers

and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my father can’t seem

source tells me Sebastian has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using a laser pointer to indicate Sebastian’s

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

reaches our main dock on the

map intently

greatly outnumbered," Tylen

assume we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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 and here, and the rest will remain scattered Toran stops mid sentence and studies me for a moment,

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

he thinks for

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 father understand?" Tylen

what m-my gift is," I