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.

piece of m-me and I-I’m holding a

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

I kiss Talia one

pecking

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

towards the door when he suddenly halts,

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

of them signs a word and for what seems like an eternity, they

Interesting...

himself, leaving me to be oblivious on

answer me

kisses her gently

he snaps, pushing past me and opening the

all of us staring at Agnes

questions, Tylen once again yells at me to move,

jump in a fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking at

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

"B-but Agnes-"

in his tracks and looking

her," I

"And?"

walking past

kiss your mate.Why can’t

widen in

completely blindsided by

me," he

my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen slows

afterthought to

all I

turns to face me, his features strong

won’t hurt her.I just thought

who is busy speaking with the young Queen with a

son’s obvious hatred

change of

not just teleport us

and opening a portal to what appears to

has its limitations,"

have been and I do

I greatly appreciate your help, your

bows, gesturing for us to

been an honor to

nod, Toran stepping into

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

with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large

to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to

pulling up a map of Ravenstone on

located along the Samish Bay in

large peninsula surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone

most of the pack lives and equipment, food,

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

been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on

outsider, the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it

the eastern side of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using a laser pointer to indicate Sebastian’s

a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds, pointing

our main dock on the western front for

study the map intently in search for a solution

greatly outnumbered," Tylen

assume we will have to utilize guerilla

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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, his lips pressed firmly into a tight

you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your

and he thinks

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 of Tylen’s instructions without question," Toran says

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

kn-know what m-my gift