скачать книгу бесплатно
Stretching, she reluctantly climbed from her supersoft bed and padded across the room to the shower. She elected not to call in any of her numerous assistants, preferring to perform her late morning preparations in privacy. She’d long ago learned that her day went better if she kept the fussing and pampering to a minimum. Of course, if there was a special event, she used all the help at her disposal. But for day-to-day, routine life, she preferred to do as much as possible on her own.
Ninety minutes later, hair scooped back in a jaunty ponytail and minimal makeup skillfully applied, she wandered out into the hallway dressed in jeans and boots and a soft cashmere sweater. Despite the bright sunshine, the weather forecasters had predicted a cold front coming in from the mountains later that day and she wanted to be ready.
A quick glance at her watch showed it was nearly noon. She’d overslept. Next time, she’d be sure and set an alarm. After having an egg-white omelet for a late breakfast, she took her second cup of coffee with her as she made her way to Dr. Streib’s laboratory. She wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, but she doubted any of it would be fun.
Focusing intently on listening to any sound from the hall outside the room he’d been given to use as a laboratory, Braden tamped down his rising irritation and impatience. Where was the princess? He’d asked her to be here at eight and he’d of course arrived early, grabbing some kind of pastry from the kitchen and asking for a pot of coffee to be sent to his room.
He tapped his wrist, grimacing as his audible watch stated the time. Princess Alisa was nearly four hours late. At this rate, it would be lunchtime and the entire castle would come to a grinding halt so everyone could eat some sort of huge meal.
Had she meant to stand him up? Was the no-show her way of quietly rebelling against her father’s dictate that she submit to testing?
Cursing under his breath, he went over placement of his equipment for the six or seventh time. The first things he’d planned to do would all be routine medical tests. An EKG, some blood work and a urinalysis. The king had even, at no doubt great expense, brought in an MRI machine and a CT scanner and set them up in separate rooms.
He planned to do everything both to her and to himself, so he could use his results as baseline.
When he’d finished, all of the data would be analyzed and digitally encrypted in his computer. Voice recognition software would enable him to dictate and he had an audio program in place to keep him informed of the results.
He’d already run his own panel of tests. The only thing missing was his subject. Princess Alisa herself.
He cursed again. Virulently. If he’d been able to see, he would stride down the hall and locate her himself, bringing her back to the lab posthaste. As it was, without sight he couldn’t actually stride, though he could do some damage with his cane if he felt so inclined.
His watch again announced the hour. Straight up and down noon. They should have gotten started hours ago. Hours. If his subject wasn’t royalty, she’d be in for a tongue-lashing when she finally showed up. Assuming she did show up.
He began to pace the length of the small room, having predetermined there were no obstacles to trip over. Despite what pre-conceived notions he might have had of spoiled, selfish princesses, he truly hadn’t expected this.
To her, this might be all fun and games. Something she had to do to keep her father happy so he wouldn’t cut her off. But to Braden, this was more. This was his life’s work, something that could make a difference as much as his work in surgery had. Discovering a cure for the madness that plagued those who didn’t change often enough would be epic. Legendary.
The implication was unfathomable. He could only imagine how such knowledge would broaden the horizons for so many. Pack members would be able to serve in the navy, travel on submarines and ships. They could work on oil rigs and drilling platforms, and other places where it was impossible to change.
If he could discover the secret. He was so close. And if he actually believed in anything as esoteric as gut feelings, he’d say that he could feel it.
Princess Alisa held the key. He knew this with unshakable certainty. For this reason he had jumped through diplomatic hoops, secured the necessary permissions and gathered supplies.
Now he’d cleared all the hurdles and made the journey to Teslinko. The ordeal had taken far too long to come to fruition. Now, the time had finally come to begin.
Then this. His subject hadn’t shown up. She knew the key lay with her and didn’t much care. A pampered princess from some obscure European country. No doubt she’d like nothing better than to dismiss him and stroll away, laughing all the while.
Which she couldn’t do. He wouldn’t let her. He’d go back to King Leo if necessary. Princess Alisa was vital to his research, the sole living shifter who could go six months to a year without changing shape and—most importantly—without going mad. Such a thing was virtually unheard of, except in the dusty old legends of their kind.
Consumed by his thoughts and his pacing, he almost missed the sound. There. High heels tapping on marble. Princess Alisa had finally deigned to grace him with her presence.
Braden clenched his jaw, steeling himself for her arrival. When she entered the room, his wolf sat up and took notice. He could have sworn the atmospheric pressure changed, or something else completely unscientific. Either way, it made him uncomfortable and he didn’t like it one bit.
He busied himself with pretending not to notice her arrival and rechecking his equipment.
“Hello? Earth to Doctor.” A trace of amusement colored her husky voice.
He started, still playing her game, all the while suppressing the urge to lash out with some comment about the time. “Ah, Princess Alisa. I didn’t hear you arrive.”
“Obviously,” she drawled. “Well, I’m here. I’d like to get this over with as quickly as possible. Shall we get started?”
He couldn’t help it—he saw red. Over with as quickly as possible? They could have been halfway done with that morning’s tests if she’d actually showed up when she’d agreed to. This—and more, in fact all the remonstrations he wanted to say—simmered right at the tip of his tongue.
Rather then spewing them, he swallowed hard, taking a deep breath, trying to compose himself. If he gave in to his temper, he’d make things even more difficult.
He wasn’t used to exercising such restraint.
His watch chose that time to speak the hour. Twelve-fifteen. More time wasted. Perfect.
And then his stomach growled. Loudly.
“Have you had your lunch?” he managed, hoping there was the smallest semblance of civility in his voice.
“Lunch?” Again she laughed. “I’m not hungry. Since I overslept, I barely just finished my breakfast.”
Which would explain why she was only now showing up. She must have slept in. Of course she’d slept in.
If she’d been a graduate student at CU, he would have given her a severe tongue-lashing. Instead, he fiddled with the EKG machine, 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 work, plain and simple. Tests were run, and I need to listen to the results.”
“But I’d like to hear them, too,” she protested. “Play them out loud. You don’t have to wear the headphones.”
For the love of … He cleared his throat. “You wouldn’t understand them if you heard them. Next time, why don’t you bring a book or something to amuse yourself.”
Her sharp intake of breath told him she hadn’t taken his comment favorably. “How do you know I won’t understand? You might be surprised.”
“I doubt it.” Again the sharp hiss of breath. His wolf had begun pacing, telling him he faced another epic battle if he didn’t wrap this up and find a place to change.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” she began.
“Good. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to review the data one more time.” He reached for the audio button and listened again as the robotic voice replayed the numbers. This time, she did not interrupt.
Chapter 4
Finally, after listening for the third time, he clicked it off and removed his headphones. “No answers,” he said with a sigh, wondering if she was still there. “Not a single, solitary clue.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But do not ever do that to me again.”
Honestly surprised, he cocked his head. “Do what to you again?”
“Shut me out.” A thin thread of anger made her melodic voice vibrate. “I’ll let you have a pass this one time, but if you want me to be part of this, you’ve got to make me a full part. I need to listen in. I’m not just a lab rat.”
With his wolf on full alert, he considered her words. For the first time he wondered if he might have a completely wrong picture of her. Maybe there was more to this princess than met the eye. Why else would she even care what he found out?
“My apologies.” Executing a half bow, hoping that such an old-fashioned gesture would please her, he managed a smile, even as he struggled to keep his wolf subdued. “You’re right, of course. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Thank you.” Rather than gloat, she sounded relieved. “I’ve been tested before, you know. There’s nothing abnormal about me. My parents have already consulted the foremost medical authorities in Teslinko and also in Rome.”
“So I’ve been told.” If she wanted to participate, then she needed to know the truth. “But those other doctors were looking for an illness, some hint of madness. I’m looking for something else entirely.”
“Like what?”
How could he explain, when he could hardly articulate what he knew even inside his own head? “As unscientific as it sounds, I’m trying to find the unthinkable. Magic that actually can be explained by science.”
“Very poetic,” she commented, pleasure thrumming in her tone. “I like that.”
