The Wolf Princess Takes A Mate

05 The Triplets

"What's wrong, darling?"

Mom asks Dad as he slowly detaches himself from the door frame to make his way toward us.

"I--I think, haa," he pants and catches his breath before answering without gasping for air, "I think I heard Annallee crying. What's wrong here? Is there something troubling her?"

Annallee...so that's my name.

"Oh, it's nothing, my love," Mom tries to calm his obviously frayed nerves as she rocks me in her arms. "I think our little Annallee is just lonely in her crib. She stopped crying the moment I held her and rocked her."

Dad sighs in relief. "That's great, that gr--oh?"

He suddenly grins at the sight of me and that grin transforms into a beaming smile as he leans closer to get a better look at me.

"She finally opened her eyes! Oh, my heart! She has my pretty, pretty green eyes! It suits her perfectly with your beautiful, beautiful dark brown hair!"

"Hmm, I don't know about that..."

Mom hums, a mischievous smile tilting the corners of her lips. When Dad and I look up at her, she smiles sweetly at us before answering our unspoken questions.

"It may not look much right now but I, for one, see some strands of red hair along with the brown ones. Who knows," she shrugs gently so she won't jostle me. "She might not have my hair color ONLY. So who knows, we shall see when she grows up."

From the corner of my eye, I see Dad's mouth gape open. And somehow, his eyes start to quiver in his eyeballs. Or maybe that's just how I see it cause he's on the verge of tears.

"You mean," he swallows. "She has both of our hair colors?"

Smiling sweetly and softly, Mom nods. "Isn't it amazing? Even though she is a girl like me, because of her hair and eyes, there's no way I can't see you in her. Both the love of my life and the fruit of our love in one cute little package."

Dad sniffs, wiping a sleeve on his dry-looking nose. "You're right, my heart. Though, you know that even if you say that she still looks like me, you know I will always see you in our daughter. She takes a lot after you, anyway."

"Hahaha, don't be silly. She looks like you! I'm sure she'll take after you more," Mom giggles.

"No, you. She looks like and takes after YOU, my heart," my Dad's smile turns into something that is far from the gentle and loving smile he was initially showing Mom.

"No..." Mom smiles too. But like Dad, her smile also takes on a sharp edge. "She looks like YOU, my love!

Is it me or, even though they are smiling at each other and calling each other affectionate endearments, is it that I feel tension crackling in the air?

I blink and wonder just how the sweet smiles and shimmering eyes Mom and Dad were sending each other suddenly became piercing glares and stubborn frowns instead.

Are they going to fight now? It looks and feels like it.

But...but I thought they were... Oh gosh, am I going to be the one to do something here so things don't escalate?

Stop thine fighting, adults who bore me into this world!

At least that's what I wanted to say but all that came out of my mouth was, "Wah!" as I try to lift my arms up in an attempt to stop them from further advancing on each other.

As if I can even do such a thing when I can't even reach them.

Additionally, was that a phrase I can use without problems here to get my point across though?

Not that it matters since I can't even speak well for them to understand. But for future reference and if such a situation occurs once again, I would like to already know what to say or do.

Oh, and I don't mean the language I'm using, but the phrase I am going to tell them.

I know that they're not using the English language that I'm used to. However, I've been reliving life long enough to not worry about being stuck in a new life with an unknown language in the new place where I was born.

It turns out that even though I already retained memories of my past lives along with the language, skills, etc., it seems my soul is integrating myself into my new body.

Therefore, if I AM born in a different place with a different language, I adapt. This makes it easier for me to learn and understand it even when I'm still a newborn.

Although, I can only use that to understand the people around me even or use it as my default language whenever I think to myself while I'm an infant. That means, I am incapable of using the language through speech until I learn it properly from either my parents, friends, or school like a normal person.

Which is just one of the few normal things I still get to do despite me reincarnating over and over again.

"Oh my!"

Mom suddenly breaks the silence between the three of us with a gush and a giggle. She glances at my Dad, her glare and frown are gone as if they hadn't been in her expression in the first place as she beams from ear to ear.

"Oh my, indeed!" Dad bellows happily as he plants his occupied hands on his hips and tilts his head back, roaring in delighted laughter.

I blink and turn my gaze between my giggling mother and my guffawing father, confused and puzzled at the sudden change of events.

What...just what is happening right now, exactly?

"How brave our little girl is! She probably understood us but not enough to probably assume that we were fighting, my heart," Mom gushes as she holds me close to her, cuddling me.

"Hahaha! Indeed, my one and only!" Dad huffs proudly. "Only barely a day after she was born and she has the instinct and the smarts already to know what's happening in her surroundings! How spectacular!"

I blink again. Oh, oops. I think I just exposed myself that I am not just a normal baby.

Uhm, I should have just pretended that I didn't know what they were doing and didn't react to anything.

I remember when I tried revealing that I can understand them while I was still a baby in one of my past lives where I have parents, they started panicking and thought I was a witch. Thanks to that, I was left in an orphanage as they ran for their lives and far, far away from me.

After that, it had been a series of lives where I became an orphan. Whether it was because I lost my parents or family member while growing up or I already woke up as a baby in an orphanage or out in the open.

Since it had been a long time since I opened my eyes to see my parents again, I forgot about that incident.

However, why...are my current parents acting like I'm some kind of genius and not some kid born out of witchcraft or a monster baby?

"Indeed. She is such a precious treasure to us in more ways than one--"

"WHOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!"

A louder but tinier voice fills the room, followed by more laughing and hooting. Curious, I crane my neck when three small figures rush inside the room and started running circles around Mom and Dad.

"Xenon! Yale! Zach!"

Dad calls them, looking down at the three boys who plainly ignored him and kept on running around, laughing, screaming, and making noises along the way.

"Dears, please stop making so much noise," Mom tries in a different, gentler approach than Dad.

However, when that still didn't work, Dad looks like he was close to grabbing the boys by the back of their necks and hauling them outside of the room.

"Boys, I am telling you right now--"

"You know what?" Mom quickly interjects, "If you three won't stop, you'll surprise your sister and she might cry. I remember you three telling me you don't want a little sibling, especially a little sister because girls cry louder and they're more annoying, right? You don't want happening that now, do you?"

Ah. So Mom is opting for a scare tactic to get them to settle down.

A better and more peaceful approach, in my opinion. And I'd like that better than having them transported by Dad out of the room by the scruff of their necks.

And based on how the boys suddenly stopped in their tracks and looked at each other, I think that was quite effective.

However, if I thought that would make them settle down and head out of the room, it didn't. Instead, one of the three identical boys nodded and the other two followed suit.

Ah, triplets. It seems I have triplets as big brothers in this life.

That's new.

It doesn't take a genius for me to know that the first boy was calling the shots. And said boy, with red hair and green eyes, just like Dad, looks up at us with a piercing glare in his eyes.

"Do we really have a sister? We didn't hear any crying when we busted in," he tells Mom with a conceited tone of voice.

Oh, wow. Look at this Mister Arrogant McLeader! There's no hint of shame in his voice even when he admitted that they busted in with no warning.

"Apologies but Xenon is right, Mommy," the other boy agrees a little more calmly than the first boy.

He has the same hair and eye color as the first one--though this boy, I notice his hair is tinged browner than the first boy.

"Or are you and Daddy just joking when you said that we will have a sister?" the second one continues his inquiry.

Oh, and here I thought the first boy was already mean enough. It seems this one is just as bad despite him acting less cocky and more composed.

The last boy, who has the same hair and eye color as the first two boys--only his hair is a tad lighter red than the first one and has no brown color mixed in like the second boy, mumbles in a small voice.

"U-uhm...we DO have a little sister, right? Or are Brother Xenon and Brother Yale right when they said that you w-were just playing with us to get us to behave?"

Compared to the other two, the third boy looks to be the most well-behaved in the group.

Also, it seemed that even though Mom is holding me in her arms, my huge and frilly clothes must be in the way for them to see me. I don't think they know that the controversial little sister is actually already there with them.

Mom and Dad looked at each other, probably thinking the way I'm thinking.

"Well, she's here," Mom tells them, grinning.

At that, the three boys whirl their heads around, looking wary, cautious, and alert as if I will somehow pop out of thin air beside them and scare the willies out of them.

I huff at the stupidity I am seeing right now.

Dad suddenly chuckles, his initial irritation from the rude entrance the boys made vanishing into thin air.

Squatting down to their level, he drops the rattle he's holding on the palm of the first boy--Xenon, I believe his name was--letting him hold it and places his hand on Xenon's shoulder.

He then gave the baby bottle to the last boy--I think his name was Zach, if I recall Dad calling him correctly--and put his hand on the boy's shoulder as well, sandwiching the second boy, Yale, in the middle.

It seems he's like making a small group huddle or something.

Additionally, I noticed that the third boy either mistook the baby bottle as his or it wasn't mine in the first place and that Dad made the baby bottle for him. Because the third boy immediately puts the bottle in his mouth and starts drinking while his eyes are wide and alert as he and his brothers wait for what Dad was going to tell them.

"If your Mother and I will show you the sister that you three are so worried about, will all of you settle down and listen to what we tell you to do?" Dad asks.

The boys look at each other again before they all shake their heads. That made Dad sigh but he was smiling at them while shaking his head.

"What am I going to do with you, three?"

With that, he looks up at me and Mom and nods. Mom nods back and slowly bends her knees, lowering herself so we're both at the same level as the boys.

As soon as the triplets notice that there was actually someone in their mother's arms, they all quickly turn around to crowd over Mom and me, peering over her arms to study me.

Xenon was eyeing me with a frown on his face. Yale is squinting at me, eyes wandering over my face critically. Zaid, who was still guzzling his drink from the baby bottle, was silently staring at me with his big curious, green eyes.

Even though they aren't saying anything and are just staring at me, I can feel that they don't want me. At all.

Well, let's see about that.

I will definitely turn them into my number one fan--er, I realize that my parents are my number one fans already. So, I'm going to make them my number two fans instead!

If they think that I will cry and cower with the scary faces Xenon and yale are giving me, then I'm sorry to disappoint them.

Instead, I will charm them so good, they won't know what hit them.

With a smile so bright that I thought my face might give out even though being a baby gives me more flexibility, I give them my bestest, brightest, most impressive, and mind-blowing beam as I raise my hands towards them and coo as cutely as I can muster after one hundred and fifteen lifetimes of practice.

Take that, my would-be annoying and arrogant brothers! Bow before me and you three will be under my charm! You will love me and cherish me with all your hearts and worship the path I walk on!

...okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

I'm doing this just because I don't want to make more enemies with my siblings like what happened in the past.

If we can't get along, then I want to at least be civil with them. I'm tired of hating and being hated by my siblings.

So if this is going to alleviate their animosity with me even a little, I'm going to do my best so they won't give me problems in the future.

I consider this as an investment.

The room was dead silent after that and I don't know if I did good or just made matters worse. And as if that wasn't enough, I feel the sides of my lip twitching from straining from smiling too much too soon and for too long.

I was about to just give up and resign myself to yet another clash with my siblings in this life well.

Until my triplet brothers finally reacted...