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 I-I’m

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

snaps when I kiss Talia one more

sir," I nod, pecking Talia on

love you

"I love you."

and following Tylen towards the door when he

turns around,

signs a word and for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand

Interesting...

leaving me to be oblivious

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

and kisses her gently on the cheek before turning away and

past me

place, all of

again yells at me to

jump in a fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

looking at

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

"B-but Agnes-"

He says, stopping in his tracks and looking

her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking past

your mate.Why can’t

eyes widen

ask, completely blindsided by his

heard me," he

clear my throat to

is not an afterthought to me,"

all I

turns to face me, his

hurt her.I just

again, greeting his father who is busy speaking with the young Queen

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

change of plans," Toran

"Why not just teleport us to

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

its

can only teleport to places I have been and I do not know Ravenstone.The airport is as far as

I greatly appreciate

bows, gesturing for us to step through the

to be in

nod, Toran stepping

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

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

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

pulling up a map

Haven are located along the Samish Bay

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

a main island where most of the pack lives

an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a

been converted into a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with

the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains an impenetrable fortress my father can’t seem to

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

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

reaches our main dock on the western

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

greatly outnumbered,"

will have to utilize guerilla warfare

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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

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

nod silently and he thinks for

bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war experience, you will follow all of Tylen’s instructions

your father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping his

father doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift is," I