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

y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

I kiss Talia one more

nod, pecking Talia on

you Talia,"

"I love you."

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

he turns around, storming towards

a word and for what seems like an eternity,

Interesting...

me to

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

leans in and kisses her gently on the cheek before

past me

all of us staring at Agnes

herself but before I can ask questions, Tylen once again yells

once more before

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

time," he shouts back without looking at me

and we have

"B-but Agnes-"

in his tracks and

her,"

"And?"

huffs, walking past

kiss your mate.Why can’t

widen

ask, completely blindsided

heard me,"

me and I clear my throat to demand a proper

not an afterthought to me,"

all I

face me,

her.I just thought you should know

who is

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

have a change of

Majesty "Why not just teleport

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

has its

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

greatly appreciate your

bows, gesturing for us to step

to be in your

a nod, Toran stepping into the

take a deep breath

a small office, with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and

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

a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of Ravenstone on the

Scarlett Haven are located along the Samish Bay in

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

the pack lives and equipment, food, and the training

there is an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and

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

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

his soldiers on the eastern side of the island

likely a distraction and he will have a smaller crew

dock on the

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

greatly outnumbered,"

utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

them to our advantage to strike and slip out unseen between the islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and

you’ve been training over the last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he asks, though it is not really

nod silently and he thinks for

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

gift does your father understand?" Tylen

doesn’t kn-know what m-my gift