Pathognomonic Signs

Julian Silas is a man living as a shadow. After the suspicious death of his father, a legendary royal jeweler, Julian’s treacherous stepfather seized the family’s prestigious workshop, forcing Julian into a life of clandestine labor. While his stepbrothers parade around high society in Julian’s designs, Julian remains locked in the cellar forge, known to the world only as a common servant. His only connection to his true identity is a pair of heirloom cufflinks—exquisite silver swans bearing the "Cigna," a secret mark used by his ancestors to authenticate their greatest works. Across the capital, Queen Althea is fighting a war of her own. Her advisors are pressuring her to enter a loveless political alliance to stabilize the crown. Defiant, she hosts a grand masquerade, declaring that she will choose a consort based on character, not a pedigree curated by the council. When Julian arrives at the ball in a suit of his own tailoring, he and Althea share a night of genuine connection, discussing the beauty of creation and the weight of duty. But as the clock strikes midnight, a palace security breach forces Julian to flee. In his haste to scale the garden wall, one of his Cigna cufflinks is torn from his sleeve and falls into the dewy grass. The Queen finds the token, but rather than sending her guards to find a man who "fits the suit," she turns to her greatest strength: her intellect. She recognizes that the "Cigna" isn't just an ornament—it’s a Coded Sign.

I'm a top healer at the Neutral Territory Sanctuary. The full moon watch had been draining. I'd barely stepped out the Sanctuary's grand doors when my phone blew up. It was the trauma wing. "Cora, get back here. Now. A patient just came in, severe wolfsbane poisoning. The Head Elder wants you leading the team!" My healer's instinct took over. I turned without a second thought. But then, a string of bizarre, floating red words appeared before my eyes—a fatal warning. 【DON'T YOU DARE STEP INTO THE ADVANCED HEALING ROOM! DON'T JOIN THIS RESCUE!】 【THE LUNA IS ALREADY DEAD. IF YOU GO IN NOW, YOU'RE JUST A SCAPEGOAT FOR THE ELDER'S DAUGHTER!】 【THIS PATIENT IS THE IRONCLAW PACK'S LUNA. THE ENRAGED ALPHA WILL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS. YOUR MATE AND FAMILY WILL BE DRAGGED DOWN WITH YOU!】 My feet froze to the spot. After a few seconds of dead silence, panic and a raw will to survive squeezed my heart. I decided to bet my life on those red lines. I was going all in. My Lycan vision scanned the dark street. My eyes locked onto it—an abandoned wolf trap at the corner of the street. The metal grate was gone, leaving it exposed. I clenched my jaw, squeezed my eyes shut, and without a second of hesitation, I leaped into that bottomless black hole.

When she woke up, she realized something weird- she stepped back in time and became the Alpha Prince's unwanted mate. ----- Amaris Samara McPherson is a thriller and fantasy writer. She was born with a mark on her neck as if someone had bitten her inside her mother's womb. However, she began to make a change when her recent dreams about a werewolf couple seemed to have something to do with her mark, pushing her to write a romance story about it. But the moment she woke up, something weird had happened. Her world began to spin backwards, and she woke up under the authority of the ruthless Alpha Gavner. She managed to escape her last pack due to her unique abilities, and finally found her mate. But she just became the Alpha Prince's unwanted mate because of being a rogue. Determined to prove him that she's capable of being his Luna, she always makes sure to ace the training sessions, and her determination and strength made the Alpha fall for her. But what will happen once Amaris finds out the truth about why she got back to the past time? And most importantly, how will she handle the truth about the reason behind her mark?

The new intern in our department, Astrid Stokes, had a soft, harmless look people viewed as innocent. She also claimed she could see a countdown over people's heads, ticking down to their deaths. Most of us just laughed it off and told her she had been reading way too many web novels. When an elderly man was rushed into the ER, she told the department head, Melanie Brooks, not to bother. She said the man wouldn't make it through the day. Melanie ignored her and pushed ahead with everything we had. The old man still died. The attending doctor even got slashed by the patient's family during the fallout. After that, people started to waver. During a team outing, Astrid suddenly screamed and told us not to get on a specific bus. She said if we did, we would all die. With no other choice, we switched vehicles. By the time we reached our destination, news came in. The bus we were supposed to take had lost its brakes and gone off a bridge. After that, almost everyone believed her. Everyone except me. The next day, she pointed straight at me. "Ruth shouldn't be a doctor anymore. If she stays, she'll get caught up in a medical dispute, and the whole department will end up dead or injured." Just like that, Melanie reassigned me. I went from doctor to janitor, handling medical waste. One day, I got scratched by a contaminated needle. Yet, no one would treat me. "Astrid already said it. This is her destiny. Anyone who gets involved will die, too." My body rotted from infection, sores breaking open across my skin. I died alone on the street, full of fury. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day Astrid first claimed she could see those death countdowns.

Bizarre cases start to haunt Leounet's famous detective trio. Detective Mhorein Layla Agustin, Chain Yuan Castranuevo and, Office Aiden Jake Ignatio, Start dealing with these one of a kind cases that are accompanied with codes. Codes that get harder to decode and cases becoming more and more terrifying. Until terrifying became traumatizing. Will they make it out alive while dealing with their own personal problems and character growth?

The bread knife stuck in Jon doe’s chest had an unusual pattern, I grabbed a camera from the nearest person and clicked a few pictures of the design “Email them to me.” I said as I was handing the camera back to them. It looked ancient and rare, not the usual bread knifes you’d find at our local stores here in Seattle. I looked up to find a detective watching my every move, it seemed that his one side of the face looked sunken in, similarly you only see this in people who don’t have teeth, which prompted me to look into his mouth, to find that all of his teeth had been pulled out. I sighed loudly and said “well, here goes our identification route of checking dental records, this body was left in the hopes that no identification will be made!” Craning my neck to have a look at the coroner who had just arrived on scene, I recalled working with her once before on another case when I first started as a rookie, Dr Leslie Adams is an expert in her field and one of the most professional and efficient woman. She looked down at me, and stated “Detective Rush you do know that the body you are looking at has been dead for more than 3 days, and also looks as if it was stored in a body freezer before being planted at this scene” I shook my head and realised that this is getting more intense by the second, “I hadn’t realised so Doc, that’s the reason we have you here, to help me solve the mystery “- I said whilst walking up to her, I held out my hand and gave her hand a firm handshake.