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 I-I’m holding

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

I nod, pecking

love you Talia,"

"I love you."

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 him

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

Interesting...

hums to himself, leaving me to be oblivious on my

chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog

gently on the cheek

past me and opening the

in place, all of

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

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

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

he shouts back without looking at me as I catch

will mobilize soon and we have to prepare the

"B-but Agnes-"

about Agnes?" He says, stopping in his

her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking past

mate.Why can’t I

eyes widen

I ask, completely

me,"

satisfy me and I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen slows

an afterthought to me,"

all I think

me, his features strong and

won’t hurt her.I just thought you

his father who

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

have a change of plans,"

not just

a portal to what appears

has its

I have been and I do not know Ravenstone.The airport is as far as I

I greatly appreciate your help,

bows, gesturing for us to step through the

been an honor to be

nod, Toran stepping into the portal with

him and I take a deep breath

with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on

create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to make our trip as comfortable as

for a meeting, Toran pulling up a

are located along the Samish

a large peninsula surrounded by woods and ocean but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands

a main island where most of the pack lives and

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

perfectly camouflaged on

an outsider, the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains

of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using a

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

reaches our main dock on the western

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

greatly outnumbered," Tylen

assume we 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

Queen tells me you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though it is not really a

nod silently and he

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

how much of your gift does your father understand?"

what m-my gift is," I reply with a