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 and I-I’m holding

don’t have a ring for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

when I kiss Talia

nod, pecking

you Talia," I

"I love you."

towards the door when he suddenly halts, his jaw clenching as he places his

turns around,

what seems like

Interesting...

hums to himself, leaving me to

gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his

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

go," he snaps, pushing past me and

in place, all of us staring at Agnes

Tylen once again yells at me to move, the sound of his booming voice

fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

without looking at me

move.Sebastian’s troops will mobilize soon and we have to prepare the islands

"B-but Agnes-"

Agnes?" He says, stopping in

kissed her,"

"And?"

walking past

mate.Why can’t I

eyes widen in

I ask, completely blindsided by

heard me,"

throat to demand a proper explanation,

an afterthought

I think

me, his features strong

hurt her.I just thought

greeting his father who is busy speaking

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

a change

"Why not just teleport us

her wrist and opening a portal to

gift has its limitations,"

can only teleport to places I have been and I do not

greatly appreciate your help, your

us to step through

to be

a nod, Toran stepping into

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

with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and

and there is a fleet of

a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on

located along the Samish Bay

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

most of the pack

silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater

and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with layers of concrete

but it

source tells me Sebastian has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains, using

bastard all these years, I know this is likely a distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump along these islands here," he adds, pointing

reaches our main dock on the western front for

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

greatly outnumbered," Tylen

we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if we

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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

few weeks but are still figuring

silently and he thinks for

Tylen will 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

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

kn-know what m-my gift is,"