The Triplet Alphas' Regret

The poor healer looked ready to faint at how intensely Rowan was glaring at him. However, I didn’t move. Put plainly, I didn’t trust this man.

I merely glared hard at the healer before turning away, unwilling to speak another word.

I could hear Rowan sigh in the background before it was followed by a moment of silence. The healer packed up his things and left the room.

However, just as I thought that Rowan had finally given up and was about to give me the peace and quiet that I asked for, I noticed there was another man standing by the door. The two healers exchanged a quiet look before the first man left without another word.

My eyes widened. It had been a while since I’ve seen this familiar face.

"You know what to do," Rowan said.

Samuel nodded by the door before coming in. His face was cold and expressionless, and he placed his equipment down on the coffee table.

"Open your mouth," Samuel instructed.

I stared at him, hesitating for a moment before obediently following his instructions. My eyes flickered over to Rowan, carefully watching him. His expression darkened even further, if that was even possible, as though he was unhappy that I was following the healer’s instructions for a change.

What a difficult guy to please.

"What did you eat before vomiting?" Samuel asked, repeating the same question that his colleague had asked. He took out a small notepad and began to scribble.

I leaned over, wanting to see what it was that he had written, but he merely moved away and glared at me. I scoffed.

"Steak," I said. "I think there’s some potatoes on there too."

Healer Samuel had always been the one to pull me from the brink of death. It wasn’t as though he was my friend, but the fact that he was the only healer I knew who didn’t hate my guts made me trust him a lot more than the others.

Every other healer would always have some sort of negative opinion of me. They wouldn’t always say it out loud, but I could see it in their eyes. As for Samuel, it looked like he equally hated everyone, including the Alphas and Violet. Even Willow, the star of the pack, didn’t escape his wrath.

In his eyes, every person who passed by him was a patient, nothing more, nothing less. That was good enough. I would take this equal hatred any day. After all, Samuel would never let his dislike for people dictate the quality of his work.

The sound of his pen scratching against the paper filled the room.

"Anything else?" Samuel asked.

"I had a mouthful of chicken and some vegetables," I said with a slight scoff. "Does that count?"

Samuel said nothing. He continued to write, his handwriting almost illegible. Then, he clicked the pen once and looked up. I couldn’t read his expression one bit.

"You ate too much," he said simply.

"What?"

"Your stomach is currently weak," Samuel said. "Consuming a large amount of food will cause blood pressure to drop as it triggers a large amount of blood to rush to your digestive tract―"

"Wait just a moment," I said, frowning. "Can you repeat that in simpler terms? Slowly?"

Samuel sighed heavily. "When you have an empty stomach for too long a time, you need to eat something light. Eating heavier foods will cause you to feel sick," he said. "Steak is probably the worst thing you can eat, especially if it’s the standard portion the kitchen serves the Alphas. To top it all off, you ate everything in one sitting."

"That’s it?" I asked, reeling back in shock. "So I am not..." I trailed off, wincing, "poisoned?"

"Poisoned by your own stupidity, yes, you are," Samuel said.

Rowan cleared his throat from where he sat, and Samuel exhaled, his shoulders slumping. I had no doubt that if he were alone, he would be rolling his eyes to the high heavens already.

"No, you’re not poisoned," Samuel said. "Why did you think you would be?"

I merely shrugged at Samuel.

"Well... I didn’t know there would be another reason for the vomiting," I mumbled underneath my breath. "It’s not as though this happened to anyone else."

There had only ever been people starving to death, and not their bodies reacting so viscerally to actually eating food― good food too, on that note. It just seemed too impossible to fathom that a bowl of cold, watered-down rice porridge would probably be better for me than these luxurious dishes.

"And..." I pointedly avoided looking in Rowan’s direction, despite his eyes boring at the side of my face. My fingers touched my abdomen gingerly; it was still feeling sore. "It’s not as though I could be pregnant. Me thinking I was poisoned is a perfectly valid inference."

From the corner of my eye, Rowan’s body tensed up at my words. He seemed to pale almost immediately, and he stood up, meeting my eyes.

His voice came out in a quick gasp. "Pregnant."

"No, I’m not pregnant," I scowled, a shiver crawling up my spine when I heard the roughness of his voice.

My fingers instinctively covered my abdomen, as though protecting it from Rowan’s desperate, intense eyes. I was once pregnant with their child, and frankly, it was for the best that I lost it.

I highly doubted I would be a good enough mother, since I was doing such a piss poor job of looking after myself that a well-cooked steak had sent me puking.

And it’s not as though the triplets would have treated me well even if I did give birth to the baby. That I was very sure of. I would never let them touch me again.

"No, but you were―" Rowan said, a look of anguish in his eyes that I found mildly hilarious. So he knew I was once pregnant after all. Yet, knowing that still certainly didn’t improve my treatment back then.

I was still starving, still malnourished, and maligned over the slightest things.

"So? It’s not as though it meant anything," I said with a scoff. "All of you wanted to get rid of it, so it’s gone for good. Cassian made sure of that with the alcohol. You should be delighted he did a thorough job."

I recalled how the alcohol burned the back of my throat when Cassian shoved the bottle into my mouth and forced me to drink. It was similar to how my throat felt now after the vomit.

Meanwhile, Rowan looked like he was going to be sick.

I rolled my eyes.

Who was he trying to fool? Even if he didn’t aim to poison me, he certainly wasn’t winning awards for treating me well. If Lucien had not saved me in the nick of time, I would have been dead many times over, maybe crushed by the rubble or ripped apart in the battle.

"Cassian―" Rowan was, for once, at a loss for words. "I... I didn’t―" His mouth moved wordlessly.

"Don’t pretend that you suddenly feel guilty for your actions, or that Cassian acted without your permission," I added scornfully.

The wound left behind by my dead child was scabbed over, yet there was still the faintest pinprick of pain when I touched on this topic. But I tried to focus on the positives― at least I had one less tie to these three buffoons.

And I had no intention of ever changing that.

"Don’t look so shocked, I will never give you a child, not right now, not in this lifetime, not ever. I will never carry any spawn of yours to term. Go fuck Violet if you want to continue your bloodline."

Rowan took an unsteady step back as he swallowed, his jaw clenched together tightly. He looked like I had just struck him in the face, which was surprising. Did he expect me to eagerly agree to be his broodmare while he waited for my sister to recover?

That was delusional, even for him. Maybe Samuel should be examining his head instead.

As though he could sense the direction of my thoughts, Samuel glanced up at Rowan and then let out an exasperated sigh before turning to address me.

"Thanks for that enlightening reveal of your medical condition. Since you miscarried once, your body is indeed weaker than everyone else in this pack," he said, shooting Rowan a flinty glare. "It seems like our Alpha has a lot to learn about nutrition and the human body if he’s actually aiming to help you recover."

"With all due respect, Samuel, I do not need his help," I said firmly. "I have survived long enough without any help, and sometimes help could make things worse. But I will take any advice you can spare."

"I see. I’ll make a note," Samuel nodded.

I had to applaud his professionalism; his face barely twitched at my snide comment.

"I’ll prescribe you some vitamins to take," he said. "Keep your meals small but frequent, and steer clear of oily, fried, or spicy food for the time being. Eat plain porridge, potatoes, or bread. At least until your stomach grows stronger. I shall take my leave."

"Thanks," I said, getting up to see him off.

He left without a second glance back, but my room still had one more intruder. Rowan stood rooted to the ground, as though his feet had been pinned to the floorboards.

I narrowed my eyes. "Is there anything else you need, Alpha?" I asked scathingly.