The Triplet Alphas' Regret

"I wasn’t wondering..." I muttered under my breath, looking away.

Damn it. I didn’t think he would be able to see through me so easily. But now that Samuel had explained things so bluntly, I felt my cold, frosted heart twitch ever the slightest with warmth.

Rowan was the Alpha. No matter how short on staff they were, if he ordered it, someone would’ve come running with the food regardless of what they were previously doing. Yet, he chose to go himself instead of focusing on his other duties in the pack. With the poisoning, I was sure his plate must have been full, but here he was, making sure my stomach was filled instead.

There was no need for Samuel to butter Rowan up, which made me more inclined to believe whatever he said about Rowan was true. After all, Samuel wasn’t known for pulling his punches when it came to spitting facts, both good and bad.

Especially bad.

I cleared my throat. "Why don’t you come in? If anyone passes by, they might think you’re up to something," I said, clumsily changing the subject. I didn’t want to think much about Rowan’s change of heart.

"I doubt it matters," Samuel said, though he stepped into the room anyway. I closed the door behind him and made my way over to the couches. He followed suit. "Didn’t you notice that the pack house is particularly quiet?"

"I meant to ask about that. I heard about the poisoning," I said. "What happened? How could it happen?" Then, I lowered my voice. "Do you think this is related to what happened with Willow?"

"I’m not too sure yet. We don’t have conclusive evidence," Samuel said, his expression turning a little more serious. "Our hands are currently a little too full with treating the patients."

"And the poison? Is it wolfsbane too? Like in the case of Willow and Cassian?" I asked worriedly. After all, there were only so many things that could get a werewolf down, and there was a container of missing tea leaves mixed with wolfsbane that still wasn’t accounted for. Could the person who took it have purposely used the same thing to poison innocent pack members?

Samuel’s posture straightened. "Not exactly. From the first round of tests, it doesn’t seem to be the specific wolfsbane plant that you and I are familiar with, but it’s something similar," he said.

So that meant there could be more wolfsbane floating around the pack. My heart thudded in trepidation at the thought that Willow might be in increased danger.

Samuel continued, "Various patients tested positive for aconitine in their bodies. The Alphas are all currently preoccupied with this. There have been too many positive cases to mark this as a mere accident."

And yet Rowan still spent the bulk of his time fussing over me. I felt the back of my ears heat up against my will.

Samuel’s gaze scanned me up and down, and he raised an eyebrow. Thankfully, he didn’t mention my suspiciously red ears.

"Well, at least there’s a silver lining to your little crisis. Since you’ve been unconscious for the last three days, that at the very least puts you in the clear as a suspect."

I rolled my eyes. "I find it hard to believe that they won’t be able to find another way to pin this on me. Maybe they’ll say that my unconscious body was the culprit spreading the disease to everyone."

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Samuel scoffed, and a light smirk decorated his features. "Alpha Rowan has been caring for you for the last three days. He hardly left his room," Samuel said. "If you are indeed the cause of this surprise poisoning, he should be on death’s door, considering he had the longest exposure to you. But as you saw for yourself, he’s in the peak of health, especially now that you’re finally awake."

He paused deliberately to let his words sink in before continuing further. "He had been quite distraught for the past few days when you refused to stir, and he kept on sending me messages through the mindlink demanding some answers from me." Samuel had a teasing glint in his eyes. "If I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought that he had some false perception that I was the Moon Goddess herself, since he expected me to perform miracles."

Hearing Samuel’s recount of Rowan’s actions these three days, my heart thawed even further. But I refused to examine my softening feelings even as my cheeks heated up.

"Well, regardless, I am sure you and I know someone who will still pull some wild story out of their asses just to blame this on me," I said dryly.

"It’s possible," Samuel said with a shrug. "After all, as far as everyone knows, Alpha Rowan was simply recuperating in his room for the last three days. Your room has been locked. Other than myself, only the Alphas know that you were unconscious."

His eyes sparkled with a slight tint of mischief. "Even the Luna doesn’t know that you’re hiding here. Your room has been locked since three days ago, and everyone thinks you’re a prisoner locked in there."

"Really?" That was surprising to me. I thought Violet would have been able to squirrel that particular kernel of information from her sources. "Even Violet doesn’t know? I’m surprised all the Alphas kept quiet about this."

"Well, none of them seem to be on speaking terms with her at the moment," Samuel said. I detected a faint hint of gleeful schadenfreude in his tone. "In fact, the Luna seemed to be stuck in her room too, despite not having a hint of poison in her body."

"Maybe it’s because they’re worried that she might be poisoned instead?" I supplied, trying not to be too hopeful about this strange turn of events.

However, Samuel’s smile merely grew. He seemed almost like a wise sage who knew answers that others didn’t.

"Unlikely," Samuel said. Her meals are entirely handled by her own staff. And even then, they’re restricted in movement. Only one maid is assigned to her room, and she cannot change her choice of omega servant. This is to prevent too many people from entering this section of the pack house."

He continued, "If the Alphas cared about her being poisoned, they would’ve gotten Beta Cedar to send her food instead. Or better yet, do it themselves. Alpha Rowan doesn’t seem to have any qualms about getting you some refreshments himself, anyway."

I couldn’t suppress my own smile. Even if my feelings towards the triplets were incredibly complicated, I still felt a certain form of satisfaction in knowing that Violet was getting the cold shoulder after all she had done to me.

Was it petty of me? Incredibly so.

Did I care? No. Violet deserved it. In fact, I wasn’t being petty enough.

The door slammed open, and I honestly thought it was Violet at the door, summoned by us gossiping about her. Instead, the only face that greeted us was Rowan’s disgruntled one, and there was a verifiable mountain of food piled up on the plate in front of him.

"You’re here," Rowan said, stepping into the room. He frowned, but surprisingly didn’t comment about Samuel’s sudden appearance. I guessed Samuel had informed Rowan in advance that he was dropping by with the documents.

Rowan kicked the door closed before making his way over, placing the enormous tray of food down on the coffee table.

My mouth watered as I smelled the scent of freshly baked bread with butter. However, before I took a bite, I chanced a look at Samuel. I didn’t want to puke out everything again.

Similarly, Rowan also looked at Samuel.

"Can she eat this?" he asked, moving the tray closer to Samuel for him to examine. I realized Rowan must have learnt his lesson from the previous time he tried to force-feed me with food I couldn’t eat.

I took a closer look and realized it was filled with tiny plates, each holding a different type of food, ranging from green leafy vegetables to thinly sliced meat and fish. Gone were the gigantic trays of whole chickens that I couldn’t finish. Instead, he focused on variety now.

There was only a mouthful or two’s worth of each. The bread I smelled was smaller than my palm.

"You’ve certainly picked a variety," Samuel commented, his eyes darting over all of the dishes as he nodded with approval. "I’m impressed. All the food here should not trigger an adverse reaction, but I would advise Miss Briar here to start with something light and small, with no dairy inside it to start with anyway."

Samuel gestured to a plate. "The carrots would be good. Her stomach hasn’t been working for three days and needs time to adjust."

"It’s better to be safe than sorry," Rowan said, now blatantly staring at me expectantly, as though he was waiting for my approval. I dared not meet his eyes, mumbling a thanks under my breath as I began to eat.

Once I started to dig in, Samuel reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of documents, handing them over to Rowan.

"Here," he said. "The data you requested."

Rowan took them over, and as his eyes scanned over the lines, he began to frown.