The Triplet Alphas' Regret

"Are you out of your damn mind?!" Cassian yelled, his voice almost cracking due to the intensity of his holler. "You’ve lost it. Fuck! Soren, what the fuck did you just do?!"

"I had it under control," Soren said, scowling.

He carefully touched the blood at the corner of his lips, wincing when he realized just how much blood there was. If I didn’t know any better and had chanced upon this scene, I would’ve even thought that Soren was a vampire instead, not a werewolf.

It took me a short moment to realize that the blood that was on Soren’s lips wasn’t even his blood. He wasn’t hurt. That blood was mine. As soon as that clicked for me, I felt a searing pain at the base of my neck near my shoulder. A hiss escaped my lips as I tried not to scream out. In a way that was almost masochistic, my fingers gingerly touched the area once more, staring at the red stain that was on my fingertips.

No matter how long I stared at it, it stayed the same. And likewise, the pain in my flesh merely grew with each passing second, determined to let me know what just happened wasn’t some torrid fever dream I could simply blink and forget.

"Shit," Soren cursed under his breath. He pushed Cassian to the side and stumbled towards me, carefully holding me in his hands. "Briar, the mark―"

I turned to the left. Coincidentally, there was a mirror there. My reflection clearly showed my paling face. In contrast, the red mark on my shoulder seemed all the more jarring. If one didn’t know any better, they’d think I had just been mauled by a wild animal.

Well. They wouldn’t be wrong.

"Get the fuck away from her," Cassian growled, yanking Soren by his collar before shoving him to one side. "You and Rowan have all gone mad! I can still close an eye with Rowan running around behind her like some lost puppy, considering he lost control of his wolf and marked her. Then, you started doing the same even without marking her. Did you really think I would let you attempt the same dirty trick that Rowan did?!"

"Fuck off, Cassian!" Soren snapped. His voice was so loud that the walls practically shook.

For once, he stood his ground and argued against his brother without fear in his eyes. If anything, Soren looked absolutely livid.

My eyes widened with surprise, almost forgetting for a moment about the wound I now had. However, it really was just for that one second. It throbbed painfully as soon as that moment ended, and I hissed again, my body scrunching into a tight ball. The pain was so crippling that I had never felt anything like it before, despite all the years of abuse I had endured.

But why? A small wound like this shouldn’t hurt as badly as this did.

Neither Soren nor Cassian seemed to have noticed my action. They were still deeply embroiled in their argument.

"Do you have any idea what you have just done?" Soren yelled. "You cannot just stop the marking process like that. You could’ve killed her―"

"Then she can just die, and we’ll be all the happier," Cassian replied, scowling.

"And what? Doom Rowan to his death as well?" Soren instantly threw back at him. "And what about me? Just because the mark is incomplete doesn’t mean it’s not already there. Or do you plan on sending two of your brothers to their graves as well, just because you can’t seem to forgive her for what she did?"

"In case you didn’t realize, her crimes are not that easily forgiven!" Cassian growled, his voice rising quickly as well. "She murdered her in cold blood. You were there! You saw it!"

"Willow―"

"It’s not fucking Willow, you idiot!" Cassian snapped. His lower eyelid twitched as he grabbed Soren’s collar once more, the veins on his knuckles popping against his skin. "Don’t you remember?’

Soren hesitated for a moment, but he reacted with only a short delay.

"Her time is gone," Soren calmly said. However, his eyes were still filled with unspoken fury. "Now, Briar is our fated mate. She is my mate. Rowan’s as well."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "Unless you’re planning on killing Rowan and me, so that there will just be one Alpha left in Shadowclaw. Otherwise, you need to be careful about your actions."

With that said, he slapped Cassian’s hands off of him with much more force than necessary.

"You know that’s not what I want," Cassian argued.

However, Soren didn’t spare Cassian any bit of attention. He turned just in time to see that I had folded over on the floor, clutching the side of my neck tenderly, my body shivering in pain. Instantly, Soren’s face fell as he dropped to his knees.

"Briar? Briar! Are you alright? Look at me."

"It..." I choked out in between sobs. "It hurts... Please... Make it stop..."

I didn’t know what was happening, only that the pain was starting to build. When Soren’s hands touched my skin, he seemed to burn me. I flinched, dodging away from his touch as I yelped in pain. Soren drew back instantly, a mixture of hurt and surprise flashing across his face.

"Where’s Samuel?" Cassian asked. He sounded conflicted, his voice mixed with both unwillingness and a tinge of worry. It was most likely because he finally stopped to think about Soren’s words.

If anything happened to me, my bonded mates might be in danger as well. As much as he hated me, he loved his brothers dearly. This could be life-threatening for his brothers― and it would also make his life as an Alpha more difficult, since he would have to shoulder the burden of caring for the pack by himself.

Soren’s eyes widened with realization.

"He was in Briar’s bedroom," Soren said.

Without wasting time, he slipped his arms under me, careful to hold me over the fabric of my clothes instead of having direct skin contact with me.

I hissed in pain, but didn’t move away from his touch. With a layer of fabric between us, the pain was still bearable, a mere discomfort in the grand scheme of things compared to what I endured earlier.

Soren quickly crossed the wing towards my bedroom. He made it halfway through the hallway when he ran into Samuel, who had already left my bedroom and was on his way to the infirmary.

"What on earth happened here?"

If I were more lucid, I would laugh at the expression of gawking horror that overtook Samuel’s face the moment he caught sight of my bloody neck.

"Follow me," Soren growled out. He didn’t even spare Samuel a second look before quickening his pace towards my new bedroom.

Samuel’s eyebrows were raised to his hairline while his mouth hung open, but he didn’t argue. His gaze was focused on my weakened, pale figure in Soren’s arms, and he dutifully followed, matching Soren’s pace. Behind them was Cassian, who trailed after them a safe distance away as though he didn’t want to be included in this mess.

As soon as we reached, Soren kicked open the door to my bedroom before quickly placing me down on the bed. When I shifted, the blood on my neck flowed down, and Samuel quickly rushed to my bedside, fumbling through his bag.

"I need to know what happened," he firmly instructed, pulling out topical antiseptics and some other medical supplies to tend to my wound.

"I was marking her," Soren said.

Instantly, Samuel’s head snapped over to glare at Soren. The action was so quick that there was even a slight popping sound.

"You what?!"

"I don’t need you to lecture me too," Soren snapped, huffing. His eyebrows were tightly scrunched together.

In reply, Samuel tightly clenched his jaw as he swallowed down the hundred and one questions he had, as well as the long spiel he wanted to unleash on Soren.

He gritted his teeth and asked instead, "And then what happened? As far as I know, unless you’ve turned into some rabid, cannibalistic beast, she shouldn’t be bleeding like this. Are you a savage?"

As he questioned Soren, Samuel turned back to tend to my wounds. I flinched as he sprayed the antiseptic on my wound, the solution stinging the area. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to hold down a scream of pain. I felt blood emerge from my lower lip as I bit down too hard in a bid to stifle the scream. I had endured plenty of painful experiences, but somehow, this was way worse than everything I felt before.

"Cassian pulled me away before I could finish marking her," Soren said. "The process isn’t complete. My canines probably tore through her and caused a bigger wound than necessary. She’ll be fine, right, Sam?"

Even though my sight was bleary and I could barely see three inches ahead of me, I could at least hear the worry in Soren’s voice.

"Is there anything you can do to help her?" Soren continued. "She won’t stop bleeding. And when I touched her, she flinched away in pain. Unless I’ve been mistaken my whole life, this isn’t supposed to happen."

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