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.

a piece of m-me and I-I’m holding a

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

kiss

I nod, pecking Talia on the

love you

"I love you."

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

around, storming towards Agnes who stares at him with

for what seems like an eternity, they

Interesting...

leaving me

I ask but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as

gently on the cheek

go," he snaps, pushing past me and opening

place, all of

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

goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after him, Tylen

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

shouts back without looking

mobilize soon and we have

"B-but Agnes-"

in his tracks and

kissed her,"

"And?"

huffs, walking past

your mate.Why can’t I

eyes widen in

I ask, completely blindsided by

me,"

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

afterthought to me," he

all I think

to face me, his features strong and

won’t hurt her.I just thought you should

and walks away again, greeting his father who is busy speaking with the young Queen with a

to not notice his son’s obvious hatred

a change of plans," Toran

just

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

gift has its

I do not know

appreciate your help, your

gesturing for us to

been an honor to be in your

nod, Toran stepping into the portal with his

take a deep breath to calm my nerves as

office, 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

Toran pulling

and Scarlett Haven are located

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

island where most of the pack lives and

on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels

a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories

but it contains an impenetrable fortress my father can’t seem

mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the

distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds, pointing to a trail

he reaches our main dock on the western

they study the map

greatly outnumbered,"

utilize guerilla warfare if

"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

Queen tells me you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though it is

and he

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

your gift does your father understand?"

what m-my gift is," I