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

for y-you yet but I-I promise to c-come back so w-we can put our fam-family bead in my

"I promise."

"Zane! Now!"

when I kiss Talia

pecking Talia

love you Talia," I

"I love you."

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

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

signs a word and for what

Interesting...

to himself, leaving me to

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

word, Tylen leans in and kisses her gently on the

past me and opening

in place, all of us staring

again

pup and mate goodbye once more before running out of the "Ty-Tylen!"I

"Ty-Tylen wait!"

time," he shouts back without looking

troops will mobilize soon and we have

"B-but Agnes-"

says, stopping in his tracks and looking

kissed her," I

"And?"

huffs, walking past

your mate.Why can’t I kiss

widen

ask, completely blindsided by

me," he

I clear my throat to demand a proper explanation, when Tylen

is not an afterthought

I think

me, his features

her.I just thought you

turns and walks away again, greeting his father who

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

change of

"Why not just teleport us to

wrist and opening a portal to what appears to be

has its limitations," Aurora

do not know Ravenstone.The airport is as far as

appreciate your help, your

for us

been an honor to

nod, Toran stepping into the portal with

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

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

also sparsely spread around the cabin to create a sophisticated atmosphere and there is a fleet of

settle down for a meeting, Toran pulling up a map of

and Scarlett Haven are located along

but Ravenstone is very remote, positioned across five small

where most of the pack lives and equipment,

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

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

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

the island near

distraction and he will have a smaller crew jump

reaches our main dock on the western front for an

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

are greatly outnumbered,"

assume we will have to utilize guerilla warfare if we want

"Precisely,"

Torans smiles.

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

training over the last few weeks but are still figuring

nod silently and he thinks for a

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

father understand?"

gift is," I reply