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.

ho-holding a piece of m-me and

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

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

kiss Talia one more

nod, pecking Talia on the

love you

"I love you."

bag and following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly halts,

small growl leaves his lips and he turns around, storming towards Agnes who stares

word and for what seems like an eternity, they simply stand before each

Interesting...

me to

gets the chance to answer me as Tylen suddenly removes his dog

kisses her gently on the cheek before turning away

pushing past me and opening

place, all of us staring at Agnes in

once again yells

a fright and hurriedly kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

looking at

mobilize soon and we

"B-but Agnes-"

in

kissed her," I say

"And?"

huffs, walking

mate.Why can’t

eyes widen

completely blindsided by

heard me,"

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

not an afterthought to me,"

all I think

face me, his features strong

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

greeting his father who is busy speaking with the young Queen with a

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

have a change of

just teleport us to

flicking her wrist and opening a portal to what appears to be

has its limitations," Aurora

and I do not know Ravenstone.The

appreciate your help, your

for us to step through the

honor to be in your

nod, Toran stepping

a deep breath to calm my nerves as we board

gathered around a table and a large monitor mounted

create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of flight attendants

for a meeting, Toran pulling up a

located along

Haven 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

the pack lives and equipment, food, and the training

missile silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater tunnels connect the islands to each

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

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

me Sebastian has mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the

and he will have a smaller crew jump

reaches our main dock on

study the map intently in

are greatly outnumbered,"

we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and here, and the rest will remain scattered Toran stops mid sentence

last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though it is not really a

nod silently and he thinks

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 question," Toran

your father understand?" Tylen asks, keeping

kn-know what m-my gift is," I reply with a