The Wolf Princess. Karen WhiddonЧитать онлайн книгу.
aware she’d have no idea that he wasn’t resetting it or something.
Restraint, he told himself. Restraint. Difficult to maintain when his agitation had stirred up his wolf even more, making the beast restless and angry.
“I ate breakfast hours ago,” he said, wondering if she’d take the hint.
“Yes, you mentioned you were an early riser.”
When her cheerful comment got no response, she moved closer, bringing with her that fresh fragrance of peaches and vanilla. “Are you all right, Dr. Streib? You sound sort of … strangled.”
Perceptive, wasn’t she? To a point, that is.
“I’m fine.” He ground out the words. “Let’s get you hooked up to this machine.” Pointing to a curtained-off area in the corner, he worked hard at keeping his voice level and emotionless. “You can change there. Put on the robe, making sure it opens to the back. My assistant will hook you up to the electrodes.”
“Your assistant?” She sounded skeptical. “We’re alone in this room. I see no helper.”
Jaw aching from clenching it, he counted to three for patience. “That’s because I sent her to have lunch. She was hungry.” After they’d waited nearly four hours for the princess to put in an appearance.
“I see.” She was on the move, her voice drifting to him from around the room. “What did my mother say her name was?”
“Katya.” He hoped she wasn’t messing with any of his equipment. “Your parents were kind to offer her. I believe her normal duties are as personal assistant to the queen.”
“Ah, okay.” Now she spoke from his left. “I know her. And how long do you think it will be until she returns?”
“Not long. She should be back any minute now.” He hoped. “She’ll need a urine sample and then will draw some blood.”
She made a sound, no doubt meant to convey distaste, but since he couldn’t see her expression, he couldn’t be positive.
“What about you? What will you do while I have this test?”
“I’ll be eating.” Using his cane to guide him, he stomped toward the door, needing to escape her before his anger boiled over. “I’m hungry. As I said, some of us ate breakfast hours ago. In the morning, when most people do.”
Unable to resist that parting shot, he shook his head. Hopefully he could get his temper under control so that when he returned, he could participate in the experiments himself without thoroughly pissing her off.
He could always hope. Maybe food would do much to calm him down.
He passed Katya the personal-assistant-turned-research-assistant as he rounded the first corner. “The princess is waiting for you,” he told her. “I’ll be back after I grab some lunch.”
“Are you sure I should do this on my own?” Katya asked, a hint of desperation in her heavily accented voice. “I’ve never done this before and I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong.”
Good Lord, even she didn’t want to be alone with Princess Prima Donna. “You’ll be fine,” he said.
“Before I go to the lab, I think you will need my help?” Katya persisted. “I can show you the way to the dining room. It is a very long walk, though it is on the same floor.”
“I’ll be all right.” He shook his head. “Don’t keep your princess waiting. Please do the EKG like I showed you. Also, see if she will give you a sample for the urinalysis, would you?”
Without waiting for her answer, he moved off in the right direction, at least judging by the scent of food. He’d gotten quite good at following his nose.
After he’d eaten, he got to his feet and made his way slowly back to the lab, dreading the next confrontation.
At least Katya should have finished the preliminary tests by now and hopefully she’d managed to coax the princess into cooperating. Since they needed to make up for the time lost that morning, if he had anything to say about it, the princess would be spending the entire afternoon in his lab. Luckily for him, his wolf appeared to be sleeping.
“Here he is,” Katya said immediately when he entered the room.
“Did you enjoy the meal?” the princess asked, without inflection.
“Very much.” He wondered if Alisa was smiling or frowning, then decided he didn’t really care. Instead, he directed his next question at his assistant. “Katya, have you run all the tests?”
“Yes, Doctor. The computer has done all the analysis and the report is ready for you to hear.”
“Hear?” Princess Alisa chimed in. She actually sounded interested, which surprised him.
“I have a computer program that reads to me, since I obviously can’t read myself. It assimilates all the data, computes a result and then relays that result to me.” He inclined his head, dismissing his assistant. “Katya, thanks for your help. I won’t need anything else from you today. You can leave now.”
He got a sense of the other woman curtsying to him, which almost made him smile. His imagination apparently had become particularly vivid since arriving here in Teslinko. He’d actually started seeing things despite having no way of knowing if they were actually happening. This blindness thing was messing with his mind. Not good for a scientist. Not good at all.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Katya said, moving past him so quickly he felt the disturbance in the air.
Leaving him alone with the high and mighty one. Who was no doubt glaring at him this very instant. A second later, he scoffed at himself. He usually went with facts, not suppositions.
“I’m glad she’s gone,” Alisa finally said, surprising him. “I don’t like her.”
“Why not?” he asked, curious despite himself.
“Good question.” Silence while she appeared to be musing over her answer. “I don’t know. I don’t like her energy. She doesn’t give me a good feeling.”
Energy. Feeling. Next she’d be talking about vibes. Par for the course. He wouldn’t be surprised if she mentioned she studied astrology or the healing powers of crystals. After all, how else could a bored and rich princess amuse herself?
Rather than comment, Braden concentrated on his equipment. Fumbling on the tabletop—he hated fumbling—until he located his headphones, he flashed an utterly fake smile in her general direction before he slipped them on and pressed the play button.
Listening while the mechanical voice relayed data, he frowned. Nothing out of the ordinary. The complete blood panel and the urinalysis contained nothing different or abnormal, nothing that wasn’t common to every other shifter on the planet. Not one single blasted thing. Except for blood type, his results and hers were exactly alike.
How could this be? Though he certainly hadn’t expected this to be easy, there had to be at least one thing out of place, one anomaly. Something. Anything.
The machine finished spitting out data and went silent. Had he missed something? He punched the replay button, and the audio stream started again, repeating the same test results.
A moment later, her arm brushed his as she reached around him and clicked the machine off, cutting the mechanical voice off mid-syllable.
His wolf came instantly awake.
Slowly, he removed his headphones, pushing back a surge of justifiable anger. “Why did you do that?”
“Surely you don’t expect me to sit here and twiddle my thumbs while you listen to music or whatever,” she drawled. “A little conversation would help pass the time.”
Calling on his rapidly dissipating patience, he shook his head. “Princess, we aren’t here for social hour. This is