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

y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we can put our fam-family bead in

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one

nod, pecking Talia

you

"I love you."

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

his lips and he turns around, storming towards Agnes

and for what seems like

Interesting...

leaving me to be

ask but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as

gently on the cheek before turning away and leaving

pushing past

place, all of us staring

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

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

he shouts back without looking at me as I catch

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

"B-but Agnes-"

stopping in his tracks and looking

her," I say

"And?"

huffs, walking

kiss your mate.Why can’t I kiss

widen

completely

me," he

I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen slows down

is not an afterthought to

all I

face me, his features

just thought

again, greeting his father who is busy speaking

not notice his son’s obvious hatred and

a change

just teleport us

flicking her wrist and opening a portal to what appears to be

its limitations,"

can only teleport to places I have been and I do not

greatly appreciate your help,

bows, gesturing for us

an honor to be in your

Toran

take a deep breath to calm my nerves

around a table

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

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

and Scarlett Haven are located along the

and ocean but Ravenstone is

the pack lives and equipment, food, and the

silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels connect the islands

silo has been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on

insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress

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

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

he reaches our main dock on the western front for an

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

are greatly outnumbered,"

will have to utilize guerilla warfare

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

stationed here, here and here, and the rest will

are still

nod silently and he thinks for a

sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war

much of your gift does your father

father doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift is," I