Mated to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 10: Confessions and Connections

A deep silence followed my question. The guys shifted uncomfortably, looking away. I could almost taste their discomfort in the air. "You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to," I said quickly, shrugging nonchalantly.

"No!" Lucas countered immediately. "You said the answer is important for you to move on. We want you to understand us better. We’ll definitely answer you. I just needed a second to get my thoughts together. Please?"

I nodded nervously. "Take your time," I muttered. Silence reigned again.

Finally, Lucas sighed. "The truth is, I’m not proud of how we acted in the past, Hazel, but we didn’t know any better. We were raised to be future alphas. We were taught that the world was under our feet and that to prove our authority, we had to show our dominance every time."

"It’s true," Liam added. "We thought we were doing what we were meant to do. ’Let them know who is boss or they’ll begin to disobey you. Make sure the servants know their place’ That’s what we were taught."

"And we didn’t have any role models to show us how to act better anyway," Lucas added. "We learned everything we know from our parents. And you know how they are..."

I nodded without saying a word. Nobody knew how their parents were more than I did. Alpha Henry was not too bad if you stayed out of his way and did your job. But even with that, he was cold and unfeeling. He never tried to forge any kind of relationship with people beneath him.

Luna Evelyn was even worse. She was a disciplinarian to the core. She ruled over the household with an iron fist. Every mistake was severely punished to make sure it never occurred again. I shivered involuntarily.

With those two as role models, it was no wonder that the triplets acted the way they did. They were simply mirroring their parent’s attitudes.

"I understand," I whispered, meeting their eyes so they could see that I meant it.

They looked relieved. Levi smiled sheepishly. "I know this isn’t a good excuse but apart from all that, we also just didn’t really know how to interact with you."

"Really?" I muttered disbelievingly.

He nodded. "You know we have a lot of women around us."

Jealousy stabbed through me like an arrow. Oh, I knew that. Really, really well. I nodded mutely, pushing those emotions down.

"We’re always surrounded by women who want us. We’re not used to being the ones intrigued by a woman. So we didn’t know how to deal with that," he said.

My brow shot up. Was he trying to say that they were intrigued by me? Me? Impossible.

He continued before I could counter him. "It’s even worse when the woman we’re intrigued with is one that we’ve been trained to look down on. Of all the women in the world, why the woman who is not even on our level?" He blushed. "No offense."

I shook my head. I wasn’t offended. It was only the truth. I wasn’t on their level and never would be.

"Actually," Liam muttered shyly, cutting in, "The truth is, I’ve always found you attractive."

My jaw dropped. "You’ve always what!?" I looked down at myself. Plain clothes. Hair haphazardly tied up in a messy bun. No makeup. No jewelry. What in the world was attractive about that?

"It’s true. I didn’t know how to tell you...or what to do about it so I just kept it to myself," he confided.

My eyes narrowed. Could he be telling the truth? After all, compared to the other two, he was always nicer and more humane. Maybe he did like me? Laughter burst through my lips. Yeah, right! I couldn’t believe that I actually almost fell for that. I rolled my eyes. freewёbnoνel.com

"No way. Don’t sweet talk me. I know you’re only saying that to me because you now know that I am your fated mate," I pointed out with a smirk.

He shook his head. "No, I really mean it!" He insisted. "Hazel, I was kind of smitten with you long before we discovered that you’re our mate."

"Huh-uhn." I snorted with laughter, rolling my eyes again. "Sure thing. I believe you."

"I’m telling the truth. Honest!" He cried, wide-eyed.

Levi pushed his shoulder lightly. "We hear you loud and clear. Now stop yelling."

He shoved Levi right back. The next thing, they were smacking each other around like energetic little boys. Lucas and I laughed as we watched them. It was such a happy scene.

Something inside me shifted. My heart softened. A soft smile touched my lips. My eyes met Lucas’. The same look was mirrored on his face. He offered me a smile. I returned it. Just like that, I knew that something had changed between us.

I offered him my hand. He froze, looking stunned. I shifted nervously and started to withdraw my hand. He recovered fast. He gently grasped my hand, a look of pure joy on his face.

I looked up and was surprised to see that Levi and Liam had stopped fighting. They were staring at us with bright eyes. I blushed, realizing that they saw the exchange.

They crowded around me, leaning on any part of me that they could reach. Levi managed to get his head into my lap. He stuck his tongue out to his brothers. Liam retaliated by knocking him on the head.

"Ouch!" Levi cried, rubbing his head.

I laughed, pushing his hand away gently. I replaced it with mine, stroking his hair. His eyes fluttered shut.

My heart felt light. It was so nice seeing this playful, relaxed side of the guys. In all the years that I lived with them, I never saw this side of them. I may not have liked who they were in the past but these young men in front of me now...I liked them much better.

"You know what I just realized?" Liam asked suddenly, pulling me from my thoughts.

"What?" I asked.

"We don’t know that much about you as a person. Your hopes. Your dreams. Your goals," he said.

I laughed, shaking my head. "That’s a lot to get into right now. I don’t know if I’ve really thought about it myself. My one and only goal was to leave this pack for good."

"You’ve not had time to experience life," Lucas said thoughtfully. "Why don’t we start with helping you experience all the beautiful little things in life?"

My excitement surged. "What do you have in mind?" They shared glances, winking at each other. I eyed them suspiciously. "What are you guys planning now?"

Lucas jumped up. He dropped to one knee in front of me. My eyes widened. He grabbed my hand. "What are you doing?" I asked, alarmed.

He smirked. "Hazel, will you...go out on a date with us?"