Heart Of A Lycan King
Chapter 41

“The car had no license plate,” Ivayne said. “I asked Kane if they found it and he said they didn’t include the report of the car in there because the plates had been removed,” she finished.

I tapped the edge of my pen on the desk and studied the file before me. It’s been five hours since Aiden and I returned from our date. While the effect may not have rolled off, I have duties to attend to, and they come first before my daydreaming of what had happened today.

Of the k****s I had gotten. And the fact that I had terribly failed the race to the bike and Aiden had won. Although he has yet to use his winning card, I’m pretty much eager to see what he does with it.

Tiffany had booked a spa session in the next two hours, while she and I had spent almost two hours trying to find a fitting dress from those Aiden had ordered home. He had left the moment we got home but he had returned over an hour ago and I could hear voices from the living room drifting through to us.

“Which means we have no lead to follow, except of course, the woman. Who had refused to see us when we visited earlier,” Tiffany said with a huff.

“I did get a few samples from the scene and I have the results,” Sherneil finally spoke for the first time since they had gotten here an hour ago. She stood up from her chair and placed a black folder before me. “I have the test in there,” she added.

I picked the file, opened it, and scanned through, but couldn’t understand any of the things written in there.

“Uh, Sherneil, I would appreciate it if you would just explain this to me. I can’t understand what is written there,” I said a bit shyly.

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” she picked the file then began speaking. “I found claw marks, albeit they’ve been tempered with I guess in an attempt to destroy the evidence on one of the trees in the forest. I also found furs on the ground. I guess whoever had them didn’t think some had fallen off. Anyways, after I conducted research, I found out that it was a wolf. Both the claw marks and the fur belong to a wolf. A red colored wolf, Your Majesty,” Sherneil finished.

“Red colored wolves are mostly from the Jaro pack. Only a handful of them live in the capital so it shouldn’t be hard to identify the owner of the fur and marks,” Ivayne said thoughtfully. “From your research, do we have a hint that the wolf had anything to do with the accident?” hse asked, facing Sherneil.

“Actually, there were two wolves there,” Sherneil said, pushing back the dark glasses she was wearing today.

Who wears dark glasses in the house?

“Two wolves?” I asked, finding this to get more interesting.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Sherneil replied. “The red wolf seemed to be the injured one. From the perspective of the marks,” she paused, walked up to her computer and clicked on something. The lights dimmed and a picture appeared on the wall. It looked like a mark, with cartoons like wolves on either side.

“This is where the red wolf was standing,” Sherneil began, pointing at the red wolf on the screen. “There are a few claw marks on the trees on that side that show struggle. The crushed car at the side was the one involved in the crash fully. If you look at the back of the car, it is more severely damaged than the front. This shows it suffered a major hit from behind. The car belonged to the red colored wolf. I found a few of its fur tuft,” she explained.

“Just get to the point, Sherneil. This explanation is simply just confusing me,” Tiffany grumbled.

Both Ivayne and I nodded, and Sherneil sighed.

“Point is, according to research, the car was attacked first, and the occupant of the empty car was severely injured,” Sherneil replied.

“Oh! That is where the b***d came from!” Ivayne clapped her hands. “The b***d Tiffany and I saw dried underneath the car rug.”

“That means the person we are looking for may not necessarily be the culprit,” Tiffany said wide eyed.

“This may all be staged. Until we have solid evidence, we can’t prove anything. One thing is for sure though, the other car and its occupant suffered the most from this. And that is the red wolf,” Sherneil explained.

My head pounded, and I could feel the throbbing headache return with full force. This just got a lot more complicated than it should. However, before I could speak up to say what I think, Sherneil’s phone buzzed and we all watched with a certain amount of curiosity as she pulled her brows in and frowned.

“Uh, I think you should see this,” she set her phone before me and took a few steps back. I’ve noticed she always does that. Never stays close to people and even more so, hated any sort of body contact. I had been tempted to ask Aiden about more of her, but refrained from doing so.

I picked up the phone, saw it was a text from Donald. It’s official, Donald is avoiding me. I sighed then began reading the contents, my eyes widening in process.

“The woman is missing,” I finally managed to speak. “Both she and her son have vanished.” I looked up at the women and Sherneil nodded. “It also says that she is Elder Manze’s sister,” I added, looking at Tiffany.

Her face blanched instantly, and I knew that something was wrong with all this somewhere.

It is going to be alright, I chanted to myself. Everything is going to be okay. I can do this.

‘I can’t do this,’ Erin whimpered while laying down with her tail between her legs, trying to make herself as small as possible, and I nodded vigorously.

We both can’t.

‘I’ll mess the ceremony, Nat. Remember what happened the one time we shifted? I think it is going to be worse this time. A small two colored wolf is no match to be the King’s mate. Let’s not go there and embarrass him,’ she finished, the pain in her voice making me wince.

But she was right. Absolutely right. We are going to mess things up if we dare to go there.

I gulped nervously as I stared at myself in the mirror. It was the morning of the ceremony. The night before had been similar, with the creeping thoughts of how I’ll mess everything up today stopping me from enjoying the warmth of Aiden’s arms around me as we slept. As he slept precisely because I couldn’t. First, it was the new findings from our research, and the thought that it may affect Tiffany, who had told me it was okay and she’s happy to help investigate the family. And second, the ceremony.

I was currently all sweaty despite the fact that I had showered thrice since I had awakened. Besides, I was only wearing my bathrobe and had not yet changed into the clothes I had chosen for the ceremony. Why? Because I was a nervous mess and I constantly sweat all over my body that makes it nearly impossible for the stylist to finish my makeup and hair.

Goddess, I don’t want any of this.

The prospect of standing before crowds, of shifting, or having everyone look at me with disgust, look at my scars and laugh at them, or the crowd chasing me in order to capture and do Goddess knows what with me did a number of things to my chest. I wasn’t ready for any of this. And the thought that I may mess it up, that I may ruin it scares me even more so than anything.

I stared at myself again, seeing how my hair had been styled perfectly and tucked into a bun in the middle of my head. Thick curly locks fall on either side of my face, framing my cheekbones. I should be happy. I looked good. But I didn’t look good.

The makeup artist had tried to cover up the scars on my wrists and neck with make up at my request, but that only made me feel even worse. In a way, it felt as though I was something to be embarrassed of. Something to be ashamed of.

It showed how undeserving I was of all this. Despite the fact that the scars were covered, I could still see them. It was as though they were staring right back at me. Taunting me. Embracing me. I knew they were there, and the creeping tight feeling that rain might fall during the ceremony and wash off all the makeup and leave the scars bare for everyone to see wrecked my nerves.

Oh Goddess!

“I don’t want any of this,” I said tightly, rolling some tissues out as I desperately began to wipe off the makeup that covered my neck. My face was still bare, so I had no problem with that. “The scars still show, nothing you do can hide them.”

“We don’t have to hide them. They are a part of you. Just calm down, Natasha, and let the artist do her job,” Tiffany said and I felt my senses go overboard.

She said to calm down. It means I am either being irrational with my thoughts or actions, or that I’m bad. Very bad.

‘We are ruining this even before we got there,’ Erin’s voice quivered as she spoke. ‘I can’t do this,’ she whimpered again while looking around frantatically. As if there would magically appear an opening to escape through.

Her fear was getting to me, combined with mine, it was nearly impossible to ignore it all.

‘Should I maybe block all thoughts? Maybe you could find a corner for us to hide. Oh, Nat! We shouldn’t have said yes to this. I shouldn’t have encouraged you to. Now look at us making a mess of everything before it even started,’ she howled again, now pacing around, whimpering. Panicking.

True. I shouldn’t have said yes to all this. I shouldn’t have told Aiden I would go. That was a terrible decision. For all I know, I could shift and everyone would laugh at me. Or get angry. Erin was pacing faster in my head, only emperzising my anxiety. I was a small wolf. Two colors. I have the Fikoians b***d. I am unworthy. How does it ever make sense for an unworthy person to take the reins of ruling over others?

“Natasha?” I heard Tiffany’s distinct voice float to my ears as I continued to stare at myself. B***d pounded in my ears, and my heart thudded loudly and crashed around my chest. My hands shook, my vision disfigured, as if I was looking through a crappy lens. I have to get away from here. I started sucking in fast and shallow breaths. Maybe I should find a quiet place and tuck myself into a ball until everything and everyone disappears.

“I want to leave,” I stood up abruptly, chewing on my lips and biting my nails at intervals. “I…I don’t want to do this…” I added, feeling as tears welled up in my ears.

“We have roughly just three hours before it starts. You need to get ready before…”

“I…I’ll mess it up, Tiffany. I am not capable of doing this,” the words came out distant and hollow, as though the voice wasn’t mine.

“You can. You are the queen and…”

“Can’t…” the words tore from my throat in a painful gasp. I was hyperventilating. Sweating. Gasping for breath. Heart in palpitation. Nausea. Heck, it even feels as though I was being choked. Everything was turning around me. Nothing looked okay.

Erin’s whimpers increased, as she placed her head between her paws. The glutral cries coming from her were painful.

“Na…”

“Please. I…can’t stay. Don’t come any closer,” I raised my hands quickly to shield myself from her the moment I saw her take a step towards me. “Stay…right there,” I added.

But before she or the makeup artist could speak, the door was pushed open, and a worried Aiden strolled in. His brows were pulled in, his mouth set in a rigid taut, his expression…too tight?

“Both of you leave,” he commanded. The aura around him was different. He looked dominating. Stronger. Wilder? I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t focus.

The moment the door shut behind us, he began to walk towards me. However, for some very weird reasons, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t tell him to stop. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even feel the loud thudding of my heart. And the moment he stopped before me, stretched his hand towards me as his thumb swiped down my cheek to wipe off the tear I had no idea had rolled, everything broke loose.

I let the tears fall as a strangled cry escaped my lips. My chest was tight with so many emotions. And when he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest, his scent filling me in, his warmth wrapping me up, his hot breath tickling my neck where he buried his neck, I let go completely.

I cried with no restrictions.

My very first time crying before him.

And it could only mean one thing. I was comfortable around him enough to show that side of me.