Page 12 of Hired for Research
Those chocolate eyes narrowed behind their black frames, and while her scent held a bitter tint, she didn’t show a bit of fear.
“First, there is no reason to growl at me. I am not some young, easily swayed female who’s going to cower at the first sign of resistance. You will remain civilized and keep your growls to yourself, or I will request you replaced.
“Second, that you are so worried for my safety that I can’t walk across the hall to another room without your presence makes my faith in the concept of Eden questionable. Are alphas really that bad that I should just abandon my project now?”
Throat tightening, he choked on the urge to strengthen his growl at her show of defiance. Her back may have been pressed to the wall, but her shoulders were straight, head up, gaze never leaving his.
And unfortunately, she had a point. His behavior reflected poorly on Eden’s safety.
Hands curling into fists at his side, he took a step back. Clearing his throat, he sucked in a deep breath and forced his shoulders to relax.
“Forgive me. I’m only anxious to be sure nothing happens to you in my care. You are perfectly safe in Eden.”
Her mutinous expression remained for a moment, but when he took another step back her posture eased. It wasn’t until then that he remembered Doctor Greyson, the man looking between him and Evelyn with his brows raised.
“Well, uh, if you need anything else while you’re here, just let me know. I’ve got to get back to my charts.”
He waited until Evelyn gave him a polite smile and murmured her thanks before walking away, though he shot a glance over his shoulder at them before disappearing down the hall. They remained where they were, Evelyn looking past Jett’s shoulder as he stared at her and tried to think of a way to get past the sudden tension between them.
“Did you want to take your luggage to the hotel, or were you planning to start working today?”
Evelyn eyed him before turning toward the room where they’d left her things.
“I’m going to get everything set up, then I need to update the notice for the volunteers so they know where to come. I won’t start taking them until tomorrow.”
He remained silent as he followed after her. He felt a little useless since it was just the two of them and he wasn’t doing anything but watching her, but when he offered to help, she declined.
“If I put it away, I’ll remember where it is. Otherwise I’m likely to forget and waste time searching for it later.”
Her logic made sense, but it still left him with nothing to do but stand awkwardly by the door so he was out of her way. The thought of the entire week being more of the same had him almost regretting being chosen for the duty. He didn’t mind staring at the omega all day, but he was sure it would bother her at some point.
“Can you tell me how you think things are going to go so I know what to expect?”
He knew she would be drawing blood, but there had been mention of other testing as well. He didn’t know what it meant.
Brown eyes lifted from checking boxes to meet his, a tiny furrow between her brows.
“Well, I didn’t have enough notice to make people schedule appointments, so I’ll be taking them as walk-ins. I’m hoping there won’t be too many at once since I’m on my own, but I’ll deal with whatever happens.
“I’ll be drawing two tubes of blood from each alpha, then swabbing for pheromones. I may do a saliva swab too…”
She trailed off, turning to look into another open case on the counter before shaking her head and looking at him again.
“If anyone agrees to the imaging, they’ll be taken down to have that done, but the tech will do the actual scans. I plan to run most of the tests on the blood here, so I don’t have to ship so much back, but there are some things I need specialized equipment for that’s not available here.”
Evelyn went back to placing tubes in a little stand. Once it was full, she put it in the cabinet and started working on the next. She’d already stored the boxes of needles and packs of swabs.
From what she said, they would be spending the majority of their time in the exam room, so he didn’t have to worry about chasing her all over the place, but that would just make the boredom worse.
He thought about what she had to do, wondering if there was anything he could offer to help with. He didn’t know the first thing about drawing blood, and while swabbing for pheromones seemed like it would be simple, it also sounded like it could be uncomfortable for him and the other alpha.
Jett frowned as he thought about it more, questions tumbling though his mind.
“How will these tests prove alphas aren’t dangerous?”
Evelyn’s eyes widened behind her glasses, and for a moment he thought he caught the bitter tinge of fear in her scent.
“Well, uh, I’ve noticed there’s not as much testosterone in the samples I’ve looked at as we’d originally expected from alphas. It was believed an abundance of it was the reason for the—”
