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 I-I’m holding a piece of

promise to c-come back so w-we can put

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

I kiss

sir," I nod, pecking

you

"I love you."

heel, grabbing my bag and following Tylen towards the door when he suddenly

he turns around, storming towards Agnes who stares at him with

word and for what seems like an eternity, they simply

Interesting...

me to be oblivious on my

but Grayson never gets the chance to answer me as Tylen

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

pushing past me and

remain frozen in place, all of us

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

kiss my pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I call out after him, Tylen marching quickly towards

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

shouts back without looking at me

will mobilize soon and we have to prepare the islands

"B-but Agnes-"

about Agnes?" He says, stopping in his tracks and looking at

kissed her,"

"And?"

huffs, walking

mate.Why can’t I kiss

widen in

I ask, completely blindsided by

me," he

throat to demand a proper

is not an afterthought to me,"

I think

turns to face me,

hurt her.I just

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

his son’s obvious hatred and

a change of plans,"

just teleport us to

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

has its

I do not know

greatly appreciate your help,

us to step through the

honor to be in

accepts the compliment with a nod, Toran

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

jet resembles a small office, with luxurious leather seats gathered around a table and a large monitor

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

pulling up a

located along the Samish Bay in

Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small islands almost three miles

where most of the pack lives and

island ring, there is an abandoned missile silo located on a fifth island and a series of underwater

a fortified bunker and is perfectly camouflaged on the island, buried nine stories underground with layers of

the island appears insignificant and uninhabited but it contains

mobilized his soldiers on the eastern side of the island near the bluffs," Toran explains,

knowing the bastard all these years, I know this is likely a distraction and he will have a smaller crew

reaches our main dock on the western

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

are greatly outnumbered,"

have to utilize guerilla warfare if

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

the islands.We'll have teams stationed here, here and

last few weeks but are still figuring out your gift?" he

and he thinks for

and make sure Sebastain’s men don’t find the bunker entrance.Zane, due to your lack of war experience, you will follow

your father understand?" Tylen

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