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.

a piece of m-me

promise to c-come back so w-we can put

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one more

sir," I nod, pecking Talia on the

you

"I love you."

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

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

them signs a word and for what

Interesting...

to himself, leaving me to be oblivious on my

chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog

and kisses her gently

he snaps, pushing past me and opening the

all of us staring at Agnes

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

fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after him, Tylen marching quickly towards the

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

looking at me as I catch

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

"B-but Agnes-"

about Agnes?" He says, stopping in his

her," I say

"And?"

walking past

mate.Why can’t

eyes widen in

I ask, completely blindsided by

heard me,"

my throat to demand

afterthought to

I

face me, his features strong and

just

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

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

change

just teleport us

a

gift has its limitations," Aurora

to places I have been and I do not know Ravenstone.The

I greatly appreciate your

us to

been an honor to

Toran

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

around a table and a large monitor mounted on a

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

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

located along the Samish

Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands almost three miles off the

main island where most of the

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

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

appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains

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

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

dock on the western front for an

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

greatly

to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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 and here, and the rest will remain scattered Toran

me you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks,

and he thinks for a

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 of Tylen’s instructions without question," Toran

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

gift is," I