I bred my female, let's call her 65, to a male named Aaroh. 65 has a Maternal talent, but I never added any CP to it so it's still at 20. Aaroh belongs to another pack, and he has a 0 Charisma rating. Somehow, they yielded three triplet pups. According to my research, Maternal (on the female), and Charisma (on the male), determine how many pups are born.

The question I have is this: How did I get three pups from two wolves with bad scores in their necessary areas, with no special items being used?

It was probably just luck. It's pretty rare to see 3 pups from only 20 maternal/charisma CP. You usually start to have a chance at 30, and around 60 is pretty much guaranteed. (Y'all, this is just my opinion, because this is what I've experienced. I always have people correct me when I talk about this, but in my experience, I am correct)

Then I must have some strange luck, because this is the second time I've seen this happen. I had a wolf with 0 maternal and a wolf with 18 charisma. 3 pups and no special items were used.

Well, lucky you :)