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

have a ring for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we can put our fam-family

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

I nod, pecking Talia on

you Talia," I

"I love you."

my bag and following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly

his lips and he turns around,

of them signs a word and for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand before each

Interesting...

leaving me to be oblivious on

Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag and places it

Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on the cheek before turning

pushing past me and opening the

all of us staring at Agnes in

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

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!"

back without looking at me as I

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

"B-but Agnes-"

stopping in

kissed her," I say

"And?"

walking past

mate.Why can’t I kiss

eyes widen

completely blindsided by his

me,"

throat to demand a proper explanation, when

not an afterthought to me,"

I

to face me,

won’t hurt her.I just thought you

and walks away again, greeting his father who is

his son’s obvious hatred

change of plans,"

not just teleport

mutters, Aurora flicking her wrist and opening a portal to what

has its

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

I greatly appreciate your

for us to step through the

honor to

a nod, Toran stepping into

and I take a deep breath

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

atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to

Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone

located along the

Ravenstone

most of the pack lives and equipment,

ring, there is an abandoned missile silo located on

been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island,

insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress

eastern side of the island near the bluffs,"

and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here,"

our main dock on

and Tylen fall silent as they study the map intently in search for a

are greatly

assume we will have to utilize guerilla

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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

but are still

and he thinks

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,"

father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping

kn-know what m-my gift is," I