The Wolf Princess

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.”