Chapter 67

I felt the pride of my alpha and relished the sweet feeling of being held tightly in his arms. I was beyond glad that we were able to clear the air as well as I began discussing the details of our mating ceremony.

Lorenzo and I thought it would be best to schedule the ceremony within the next two months or so, considering all that’s been going on.

“We’ll have the ceremony itself somewhere in the gardens,” he said. “I’m sure the staff are going to go utterly berserk with excitement while planning the preparations.”

He hoped for a beautiful sunny day and even Lorenzo mentioned something about getting me a new dress. I almost had the urge to ask him if he would be interested in designing one for me like how he’d fixed the one I had the night of the ballet.

I never thought I’d get the chance to really take the pleasure of planning my mating ceremony. The idea seemed too far-fetched to ever be possible, and I’d lived with the notion that it would never have happened.

Suddenly, Lorenzo’s phone started to go off, causing me to go stiff.

He quickly reached for it. His expression slightly fell. “It’s the county coroner,” he said.

I hastily sat up and tried to keep the panic out of my voice.

Oh, God. What now?

Was he calling to tell us that another body had been brought in? I silently begged and prayed that wasn’t the case. It pained me enough that we now had currently two bodies waiting in the morgue that needed to be dealt with. I knew that my nerves couldn’t possibly handle a potential third.

The look on Lorenzo’s face was almost unreadable. His stoic demeanor remained static even after he ended the call.

“What is it?” I asked. “It’s okay, I can handle it.”

“Well, there’s good news and...strange news, I suppose,” he remarked. “The good news is that there hasn't been another recovered body.”

My brows drew together in question. “But what’s the strange news?”

Lorenzo quirked a brow and gently shook his head. “The coroner mentioned something there being a strange mark on Lucy’s body he came across as he was running all of the necessary tests,” he explained.

A mark? What sort of mark?

From what I was able to conclude from my quick glance at Lucy Grant’s recovered body, she too was covered in a series of various bite marks just like Agatha was. It was safe to assume that the two girls could have very likely endured the same horrible fate.

“He wants us to get to his office as soon as possible,” Lorenzo said.

Without wasting another moment, I grabbed for my shoes and the two of us made for the car.

...

I tried to keep my anxiety to a minimum as we made our way to the county coroner’s office. Unlike our previous visit, the place wasn’t heavily packed with people and we were able to head straight back to the main offices. Right as we reached the coroner’s office we were met with a very perturbed-looking man that was pouring over his workbooks.

Lorenzo cleared his throat, subtly announcing our arrival. The corner turned to see us and let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness, you’re here.” He glanced at me and smiled. “Miss Wright, I hope that you’re feeling better.”

I nodded my head. “Yes, turns out, I was in much need of a break from the case,” I told him. “But you mentioned to Lorenzo before about some kind of a mark that you found on Lucy. What exactly did you mean by that?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his tired eyes. “I honestly don’t know what to make of it myself. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he noted. “The truth is, I called you both here to see if there was any way either of you could help me determine what this mark could be from, perhaps even its origin.”

“Alright.”

“Now, this is technically a bit unorthodox to ask for such assistance in my particular profession...But would either of you mind taking a look at um...Miss Grant?”

Lorenzo and I shared a glance with each other before nodding our heads.

The older man got up from his chair and led us into a second room across the hall. The tone of his voice became grim. “This way.”

He drew us over to a metal table where Lucy’s body was laid out. Carefully, he removed the half top of the sheet to reveal an ugly-looking scar that was embedded into Lucy's left breast.

“What the hell is that?” I hissed under my breath.

“May I?” Lorenzo asked.

The coroner nodded his head and gestured for him to take a closer look. Lorenzo came up beside me and slowly reached out to brush his finger over the mark.

“Well, we can certainly rule out the possibility of it being a birthmark,” he noted.

“No, it’s definitely a scar.”

The overall shape was distinctively oval along with a faded shape of some kind of letter in the center...

A grotesque, nauseating sensation rolled in my stomach. I quickly tore myself away and covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh God,” I whimpered.

“Miss Wright?”

I took several deep breaths before trusting myself to speak. “It’s more than just a scar,” I explained. “Lucy was branded.”

“She’s right,” Lorenzo confirmed. “Although I’ve never seen a brand shape such as this, you can tell that it came from some sort of welded piece of jewelry.”

I clenched my eyes shut. “Take a closer look, you'll see that there’s a faded outline of a letter,” I told him.

“Can you make out the letter, Mr. Sinclair?” the coroner asked.

Lorenzo narrowed his eyes and bit the inside of his cheek with indecisiveness. “It’s difficult to tell for certain. The letter is either an ‘R’ or a ‘P’.”

A cold streak of unbelievable fear raced through me. This mark did not come from any random piece of jewelry as Lorenzo previously mentioned. It was unique—custom-made to fit only one person. Jesus Christ.

‘Now we know why the Lycan Luna’s son appeared to panicked when he saw those pictures before,’ my wolf mentioned.

“Lorenzo...Who do we know that specifically wears a signet ring?”

I opened my eyes to find him glaring back at me with the same distressed look I had on my face. His voice grew dark and slightly distorted.

“Perhaps we ought to make another trip to visit the Royal Family,” he said bitterly.