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.

of m-me and

have a ring for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia

I nod, pecking Talia on the

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

the door when he suddenly halts, his jaw

around, storming towards Agnes who

what seems like an

Interesting...

to himself, leaving me to be oblivious on my

chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog tag and places it in

another word, Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on the

past me and opening

all of

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

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 pack

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking at me

will mobilize soon and we have to

"B-but Agnes-"

He says, stopping in his tracks and

kissed her," I say

"And?"

huffs, walking

mate.Why can’t I

eyes widen

ask, completely blindsided by

me," he

my throat to

an afterthought to me," he

all I

to face me, his features

her.I just thought you

turns and walks away again, greeting his father who

notice his son’s obvious hatred and gestures for me to step

a change of

just teleport

and opening a portal to what appears to be a private

has its limitations," Aurora

do not know Ravenstone.The airport is as

appreciate your

us to step through the

to

accepts the compliment with a nod, Toran stepping into the portal

a deep breath to calm my

small office, with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted on a wall near the end of the

and recliners are also sparsely spread around the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to make our trip

Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone

Scarlett Haven are located

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

main island where most of the pack lives and equipment, food, and

an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a

and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried

island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my

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

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

he reaches our main dock on the western front for an

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

greatly outnumbered,"

will have to utilize guerilla warfare

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

located the 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 stops mid

but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though

nod silently and he thinks for a

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,"

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

doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift