The Somerset Series: A Box Set: Books 2-4

by Isadora Brown

  Danielle peeled her eyes away from Aubrey so she could place them back on Noah. "I don't understand how no one is afraid of him," she mumbled.

  "Oh, I didn't say that," Aubrey corrected. "People fear Noah. But with that fears comes respect. They literally kneel to him like he's some kind of messiah."

  "What the actual fuck?" Danielle whispered, causing Aubrey to cover her mouth with her hands and giggled.

  "It's true," she murmured through her hands. "One of my close friends has a father who's a member of Noah's compound tells her things. And she tells me things. I'm trying to help her get her dad out but he doesn't seem to want to budge."

  "He was injected with the serum?" Danielle whispered, surprised that someone older and not in the marines would be issued the serum in the first place.

  Aubrey shook her head. "Human sympathizer," she whispered back.

  "While I was in the marines," Noah continued, pacing back and forth, "I died." Danielle narrowed her eyes, trying to take in the background, trying to make out if there were any telling signs or clues to know exactly where he was. Truth be told, she was hoping to catch any hint, any clue, that her father might be there, trapped. "I couldn't believe it myself but I fucking died thanks to a goddamn explosive my RV drove over. One other man in my unit died - the driver. You might know him as The Lone Wolf but I know him as Shane August. That fucker was indestructible, let me tell you."

  He grinned, turning, his hands behind his back. Despite his size, he was graceful. Every movement was planned and precise.

  "They brought us back to life, though," he said, looking straight into the camera. His eyes were nearly as beautiful as Alek's: there was a coldness in them, however, a dangerous chill that didn't quite touch Alek's the same way. This man was animated, yes, but he was also hollow inside, lifeless, a shell of the man he used to be. Perhaps even more dangerous now than when he was a marine. "They gave us a serum that saved our life but killed our humanity in the process. Now, I'm not saying werewolves don't have humanity. I've met some of them, and let me tell you, werewolves are fucking awesome. But when a man is dead and, in order to save him, they have to transform him into something he's not, it takes its toll on the psyche, on the body, on the spirit." He looked straight at the camera and Danielle felt a shudder slide down her spine. Those eyes... those eyes could see everything. And it scared the shit out of her. "What I'm saying is, I was dead and, in order to bring me back to life, they transformed me into a werewolf."

  Danielle's eyes widened and she glanced at Aubrey.

  "Is he supposed to be telling everyone this?" she whispered.

  Aubrey shrugged. "I don't think so," she replied. "But Noah's going to do whatever he wants. He's not afraid of anybody."

  “There was no warning before this piece of shit opened fire,” Noah continued. His sharp, tawny gaze was focused on the agent in question, his back to the camera. It was almost as if he were speaking to the agent rather than his audience, and perhaps he was. “He shot Alex in the back as he was running out in the Black Woods. Alex had no idea what happened to him. No one warned us. He was still going through the change. And he never got the knowledge that would save his life.”

  He turned his attention back to the camera, his gaze unflinching. In this moment, he wasn’t the charming, attractive leader he had been for the past ten minutes. Now, he was stone cold, a shell of a man. Anger burned inside of him, his glare fire.

  “I know the NDS knows about transforming. One of their agents, Bridgette Barker, went through the change herself. She’s now partnered with Marcus Sterling, Alpha of the Sterling Pack. The NDS researched what she was going through. She was surrounded by wolves who helped her through it. No one did that for me or Shane or Alex or any of us. We were left to deal with the consequences of their actions.” He clenched his jaw together. “But now, that’s come full circle. Now, it’s their turn to realize what it’s like to lose a life.”

  Without warning, Noah reached back and punched the agent in the face. He groaned. Noah did it again. And again. And again.

  Danielle flinched and looked away. She wasn’t a big fan of violence and it didn’t help that the pop of the sound reverberated throughout the attack so the sound stayed in her head. She didn’t need to see it to visualize what was happening. She glanced over at Aubrey. Somehow, Aubrey managed to keep her eyes on the screen even though she, too, seem disgusted by what she was watching. She must have a higher tolerance for violence than Danielle did.

  After what felt like forever – though, it was technically only ten minutes – Noah stopped. He slid off his leather jacket, took off his shirt and jeans and boots. Danielle picked her eyes up in time to watch Noah start to transform into a wolf. Her eyes widened. She had never seen a human transform into a wolf before. It was hard to put into words except to describe exactly what had happened: Noah was a man and now he was a beast. His boxers ripped off of him. He was a black wolf, big and strong and vicious. His coat gleamed beneath the lights and his teeth sparkled as they snapped at the agent. And then, he lunged. He snapped at the agent’s neck, taking hold of his throat, and completely ripping his flesh off. It was almost as though Noah slit his throat. The agent was dead almost immediately, but blood continued to drip out of him like some broken fountain, spurting out until it slowed.

  And then Noah was back to being human, the camera careful to only film his shoulders and up.

  “Our bylaws protect us, and the NDS violated the bylaws they put into place to protect us,” Noah said. “I invite the public, regardless of your species, to join our pack. We keep to the law but we make our own and we have strict rules here. If you’re tired of the NDS calling the shots and dictating how you live and deciding whether you live or die, come join us. We’re open to all.”

  And with that, the camera went black.

  “We have to go there,” Danielle murmured. She didn’t know if she was talking to Aubrey or herself but she needed to say it. “My dad might be there. We need to get him out.”

  18

  Danielle couldn't sleep that night. She kept tossing and turning, trying to get some sort of slumber but finding her mind was much too loud and the vivid memory of what she saw on television plaguing her thoughts. She couldn't get that poor agent out of her mind. He beat the man to a bloody pulp with his bare hands before he transformed into an impressive werewolf and ripped his throat to shreds. Granted, Noah's rationale for the action was sound - at least, Aubrey said it was - but his way of handling things was much too gruesome for her. All she could think about was her father and how he was in that compound. With that man - that beast. Who could kill him at any moment for any reason.

  Noah hadn't actually admitted that he had her father. He had revealed highly classified secrets on air and he sounded convincing. The NDS would no doubt deny them and say he was using fear tactics to emphasize his point but Noah planted the seeds and there was no way to undo that. Regardless, who else would have him? Why would anyone else take him? And why would Noah beat him to a bloody pulp - not that Danielle wanted that. But her father was the most important person in this confidential of the NDS. Wouldn't beating him up prove more of a shock, more of a way to get his point across? Was he holding his ace? Or did Noah not have him at all?

  Danielle shook her head, closing her eyes after staring at the shadows on her ceiling for a long moment. She needed to sleep. She still had class in the morning and it was getting close to midterms.

  She slowed her breathing so it was even and deep. She allowed thoughts to pass through her thoughts one after the other without teasing them out. And soon, she fell asleep.

  Danielle woke to to someone kissing her bare throat. Her lips curled into a smile and her eyes rolled back in her head as she arched her body up and leaned her head away, giving him more access to her neck. Because she already knew who it was. Even though they had only been together the past couple of months, she knew his touch too well, knew his scent.

  Alek.

  "You don't
know what you are offering me right now, Kærasta," he murmured against the column of her throat. She could feel the vibrations up and down her spine shooting waves of pleasure into her pelvis.

  "And what would that be?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

  "Consent to make you mine," he replied. She felt him draw back from her neck but the weight of his body on hers was still there. He was still close. "This may be a dream but you're still cognizant. You're still aware enough to make decisions."

  Danielle opened her eyes, locking them with Alek's crystal blue ones.

  "This is a dream?" she murmured, glancing down at her body. She hadn't even been perceptive of the fact that she was naked, underneath silk silver sheets with a naked Alek on top of her. It felt so real, even though she didn't quite remember how she had gotten here or why she was back in bed with the vampire after being rejected by him in class.

  "Kind of," he said, cocking his head to the side. "Think of it more like an in between. It's real but it also is not. This reality is the one I've created for us."

  "And, of course, we're in bed together," she said, her tone flat.

  "Of course," he said with a shrug.

  "Can vampires do this?" Danielle asked, looking around. "Manipulate reality?"

  "Some vampires have special powers no one knows about," Alek told her. "I can dream walk. I can go into someone's dreams and manipulate them to dream something specific. I can come to them in dreams. I can send messages through dreams. It is something no one knows about me."

  "So why share it with me?" Danielle asked. Her eyes were narrowed and she was suddenly annoyed with Alek and his preference for her that consisted of sex and nothing more. Not because he didn't feel anything for her but because he was afraid. "Why are you here?"

  "I wanted to see you." He said it so casually, like it was a simple fact. His eyes gazed at her throat, her shoulders, her collarbone with a warm hunger that caused heat to flood her chest.

  "Stop it," she told him. She stood up, indirectly pushing him off of her. He sat up along with her but he was still much too close than she would prefer. "Get out of my head."

  "Is that what you want?" He cocked his head to the side and leaned forward without touching her.

  "I want you to be upfront with what you feel for me," she told him. "And I want to know why you have feelings for me."

  "You think I have feelings for you." His lips were turned up and there was an amused sparkle in his eyes but it wasn't malicious. It was hard to describe.

  "If you don't, then why-"

  "There's something about you I can't explain," he said. "You are full of confliction. You appear innocent and you are innocent but you're also fearless and uninhibited. You have experience that makes you knowledgeable on how to please a man, and the way you touch me somehow makes me putty in your hands. You are the only person who has rendered me useless. Perhaps you allow me to take over your body, to connect with it, but somehow, even on a subconscious level, I know that you are still in control, even writhing underneath me, begging me to fuck you harder. Even now, I have created this dream just so I can see you, revealing something I have never told anybody, and I do not resent you or fear that you will use it against me. Because more than anything, Danielle, you are sweet and warm and genuine, and those traits are so difficult to come by in this world. And it's something I want to be close to. It's something I've never experienced before - it's something I've never let myself experience before. And I can't seem to let you go so easily."

  "But your feelings for me are purely sexual," she stated. "There's nothing really attaching you to me deeper than our physical relationship."

  Danielle opened her mouth as her eyes closed on their own accord. She was prepared to ask why her, why would he reveal himself and open up to her and no one else when he had been around for a thousand years. It made absolutely no sense why she would change his mind. Then again, there was something inside of her that told her not to question it. To go with the flow. If he just wanted sex, he already got that from her. In the end, why worry about the why? Why not just give into this feeling of being with him? He felt so good against her and it was clear he trusted her well enough to be with her – she knew he hadn’t been with a student before – and with little things like dream manipulation or allowing her to stay over at his place.

  She could feel this out. She could see where this took her.

  “That feels nice,” she murmured as his canines gently grazed her skin.

  “Let me make you mine,” he said, his voice crisp but muffled against her throat. “Give yourself to me. Give me all of you.”

  “Would that mean you’re my boyfriend?” she asked, her eyes still closed. It still felt surreal to her. Dream-like and not quite like this was happening. But she didn’t want this to end.

  “It means much more than that,” he told her. He ghosted a kiss on the tip of her chin. “Imprint with me. Be mine. Forever.”

  “Forever?” Danielle murmured. “I won’t be around forever. Why would you want me forever? You said you don’t believe in this.”

  “I do not know what I believe in anymore,” Alek replied and she could hear the honesty in his voice. “But I find myself with this need to be around you always. I find I enjoy you, more than just physically. You are pleasing to look at, to converse with, to be with, to be inside. I do not understand it.”

  Danielle smiled. “I feel the same way,” she replied. Her eyes slowly opened, half-mast, and she nodded. “I want you always. Take me, then. Make me yours.”

  Alek grinned, feral and possessive. He didn’t speak. Instead, he shifted his attention back to her throat and continued to graze her skin with the points of his teeth. And then, he pierced the flesh and sunk them in.

  19

  Aubrey stopped by early the next morning. She wasn't alone. Next to Aubrey was a drop-dead gorgeous woman, same age, with pale green eyes and long, wavy blonde hair.

  "Dani, this is Addison, Addison this is Dani," Aubrey said. She fixed her blue eyes on Danielle. "I know I should have asked but I have her with me because her father is there, at the compound, and Addison gives us a good excuse for us to be there. Visiting hours are allotted to members of the compound under strict circumstances. Her father's been at this compound for three months and earned a visitation."

  "I don't get it," Danielle said, shutting the door. "Are they prisoners?"

  Addison shrugged her shoulders. "It depends on how you look at it," she said. "Everyone there is there voluntarily. But, in order to be accepted into the compound, you have to agree to a bunch of different rules that are heavily enforced. One of those rules is to keep to the compound. If they want to leave, they can, but they can't go back. However, Noah seeks to understand the majority of his compound has family and that complete isolation from family could lose him followers. So he instituted a rule where visiting was permitted."

  "What, is this guy like some cult leader?" Danielle asked.

  "Not exactly," Addison said. "After meeting Aubrey, I learned he's one of the men forced to take the serum that transformed him from human to werewolf. Unlike The Lone Wolf, who clearly resents being a werewolf, Noah has embraced it. From what my father has told me, Noah's original pack had five other members, all of which were men given the serum and transformed. They were supposed to be used as weapons, tools, for the marines. They disagreed and claimed that their body was theirs to do what they wanted with. The NDS also disagreed. So Noah formed his own pack and since he was a werewolf and his quote unquote pack was created using the same serum, the pack falls under the same bylaws as other, more organic packs do."

  "Which means the NDS can't force them to disband," Aubrey said, her hands in her poofy maroon zip up. "As long as Noah is doing everything lawfully, the NDS can't touch them."

  "What Noah did to that agent can't possibly be lawful," Addison pointed out.

  "Actually," Aubrey drawled. "Using the facts he presented, he could make an argument that he felt threatened and he
was dealing with a threat. It's a stretch but it isn't entirely unheard of."

  "There's no way that'll hold up," Danielle said.

  "Have you heard about the NDS raiding their compound?" Aubrey asked, perking her brow.

  "Not everyone there has the serum," Danielle said, hoisting her backpack on her shoulder. "Which means there are humans there. Which means..." She looked between the two women helplessly.

  "All voluntary," Aubrey repeated.

  Danielle looked helplessly between the two. This didn't make any sense. She remembered Noah inviting the population of Somerset into his compound during his broadcast yesterday. She had no idea why he would do something like that unless he was recruiting people to help protect himself and his pack. Or he could be looking for resources.

  "Noah is a smart guy," Addison muttered almost unwillingly. "Despite the fact that he has laws protecting his pack doesn't mean he has a right to the various resources that sustain a community. For example, he has pharmacists on-call with connections to our pharmacies, despite the fact that as far as I know, there's only one nurse that's actually part of his compound. However, he gets necessary medication, condoms, birth control, because of his resources outside. People who have friends on the outside that can get him what he needs on the inside don't necessarily have to work for their place. Your value is not only in what you can do and how you can contribute, it's who you know. My father is an old man who lost his wife and doesn't have anyone except me. He has to do physical labor in order to earn his bed and the food he eats and any toiletries he needs. He's low on the totem pole but he loves belonging. He loves being needed. I'm all he has left but I'm in college - and, yeah, he's proud of me, but it's one of those things where he feels I don't need him anymore. There are a lot of humans at the compound like that. A lot of older people drawn to being depended upon for a simple or menial job." She shook her head. "It's almost a positive thing, what Noah's doing but after seeing what he did to that agent... I want my dad out."