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

but I-I promise to c-come back

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

pecking Talia

you

"I love you."

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

around, storming towards Agnes

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

Interesting...

leaving me to

I ask but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog

Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on the cheek before

he snaps, pushing past

in place, all of us staring at

seems stunned herself but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again yells at me to move,

in a 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!"

he shouts back without looking at me

mobilize soon and we have to prepare the

"B-but Agnes-"

says, stopping in his tracks and looking at

kissed her," I say

"And?"

walking past

kiss your mate.Why can’t I kiss

widen

I ask, completely blindsided by

me,"

answer does not satisfy me and I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen

afterthought to

I

to face me,

her.I just thought you should

and walks away again, greeting his father who is busy

notice his son’s obvious hatred

have a change of plans,"

"Why not just teleport us

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

gift has its limitations,"

to places I have been and I do not know

appreciate your

for us to step through the

been an honor to be in

the compliment with a nod, Toran stepping into the

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

jet resembles a small office, with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on a wall near

create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight

Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on the

located along the

by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands almost

island where most of the

abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a

fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on

the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it

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

these years, I know this 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 in the

main dock on

fall silent as they study the map intently in search

are greatly outnumbered,"

will have to utilize guerilla warfare

"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 moment, his lips pressed firmly

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

silently and he thinks for

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

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

kn-know what m-my gift is,"