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.

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!"

when I kiss Talia one

pecking Talia

you

"I love you."

following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly halts, his jaw clenching as he places his hand on the

small growl leaves his lips and he turns around,

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

Interesting...

hums to himself, leaving me to be oblivious on my

to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his

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

he snaps, pushing past me

remain frozen in place, all of us staring at

but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again yells at me to move, the sound of his booming

before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

looking at me as I catch

and we have to

"B-but Agnes-"

He says, stopping in his

kissed her,"

"And?"

walking past

kiss your mate.Why can’t I

widen

completely

heard me,"

satisfy me and I clear my throat to

is not an afterthought to me," he

I think

turns to face me, his features strong

won’t hurt her.I just thought you should know

greeting his father who is busy speaking with the

his son’s obvious

change of

Majesty "Why not just

and opening a portal to what appears to be a private

has its limitations," Aurora

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

appreciate your help,

gesturing for us

honor to be

the compliment with a nod, Toran stepping into

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

a table and a large monitor mounted

cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants ready to

for a meeting, Toran pulling up a

and Scarlett Haven are located along

ocean but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands almost three miles off the

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

ring, there is an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels connect the islands to each

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

eastern side of the island

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

our main dock on the

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

are greatly outnumbered," Tylen

have to utilize

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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

training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out

and he

the bunker entrance.Zane,

your father understand?"

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