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

by Isadora Brown

  Aubrey placed a comforting hand on Addison's shoulder. "We're going to do all we can to get him out," she said. "It's not going to happen right away. We have to take our time and really ensure we get a good layout of the place. And, more than anything, we have to remember that everyone is there because they want to be. If you want your father back, you have to convince him while you visit. Dani and I are going to scout the compound, try to get a feel for the layout, maybe see if anyone else is there that we need to know about." She turned to Danielle. "This has the potential to be dangerous. Are you sure you want to come? I can keep an eye out for your father if you choose to stay back here."

  "I'm coming," Danielle told her. Of course she was coming. She was done with sitting around at home and waiting for the NDS to do something about her father. At least this way, she would be able to do something. "I packed my bag last night." She looked between Aubrey and Addison. "I need to do something. I can't just wait anymore."

  "This isn't a distraction, Dani," Aubrey said. She didn't seem as though she was lecturing her but she wanted to ensure that Danielle knew just what she was getting herself into. "This is potentially dangerous. Addison has a reason to be there – she’s visiting her father. You and me are going for purely speculative reasons. And even though Noah Wright seems to have an ego the size of Alaska, he's an intelligent man. I highly doubt he'll be okay with us investigating his private compound."

  "But you heard him," Danielle pointed out. "He's opening his doors. He wants the public to come and join him."

  "He's allocating resources," Addison agreed, her pale green eyes touching emerald with excitement. "He wants to network. Maybe if we aren't interested in joining his compound, we can get him what he needs in order to sustain his community. Because he needs to do that. His compound can't survive without help from the outside. So we can go on the pretense of possibly joining up."

  "Even better," Aubrey said, her dark blue eyes shining.

  Before the three young women could grab the last things they might need, there was a knock on the door. They three looked at each other with strange looks on their faces. Danielle wasn't expecting anyone, especially so early in the morning.

  When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Alek in front of her, wearing a simple white t-shirt and sweatpants. His hair was still combed back and there was gentle blond scruff that revealed he hadn't shaved in the past day or two.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked. She hadn't meant to sound so rude but he was distracting her from something important and he would prolong their departure, which was the last thing she wanted.

  "I know what you're doing," he told her, his voice low and dangerous. His sharp blue eyes glanced over at the other two women in Danielle's dorm, narrowed and untrusting. "You cannot go."

  Danielle furrowed a brow. "What are you talking about?" she asked. How could he possibly know what she was off to do? She hadn't told him anything. She barely found out late last night.

  Alek's eyes softened when he looked back at Danielle. Without speaking immediately, he reached up and brushed his fingers across her neck. She winced at the touch. For whatever reason, he skin was tender and -

  Her eyes widened. "You bit me," she hissed. She didn't want Aubrey and Addison to overhear but it was difficult for her to keep hold of her temper. "I thought that was a dream!"

  "I specifically told you it wasn't," he reminded her.

  “What I do is none of your business,” Danielle told him, her eyes narrowed.

  “It is my business.” Alek crossed his arms over his chest, causing the t-shirt sleeves to stretch just slightly. “Whether you like it or not, you’re mine. And I’m yours. What you do is my business. I am concerned for your well-being and I do not want you to walk into unknown danger because you have a chip on your shoulder about your missing father.” Danielle shot him a look but he did not back down. “Your life is too valuable to throw away. You have a heartbeat. You have life flowing through your veins. You saw what that beast did to that NDS agent, and regardless of whether or not he deserved the death, you cannot go gallivanting off to some compound in the middle of the forest.”

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Danielle said. “You don’t know what it’s like to-”

  “To what?” Alek asked, furrowing his brow. “To lose my loved ones? To be unable to do anything about the pain they have succumbed to?”

  Danielle felt her cheeks burn. How could she completely forget about the fact that as a vampire, Alek had watched people live from birth to death, watching loved ones grow old and feeble and succumb to the inevitable without attaining any sort of power to assist them. Of course, he could turn someone but from what he told her, that only occurred through imprinting. Vampires either withdrew blood from living life forces via donors or they lost control and killed someone from drinking too much. Turning created a bond, a deep bond that surpassed marriage, that Alek did not want the responsibility of handling. He had never believed he wanted that. “I hate not doing anything,” she mumbled, scratching the back of her head.

  “You are doing something,” Alek told her. He glanced over at Aubrey and Addison – to be honest, Danielle had forgotten that they were even there – and looked back at Danielle. “Consider the fact that you know nothing of what you’re doing. You do not even know if your father is there.”

  “He invited the public,” Addison pointed out. “She can go if she wants.”

  Alek shot Addison a cold look. Addison clenched her teeth stubbornly but she put up no further argument. “She can do whatever she likes, yes,” he agreed, “but that does not mean she should.” He turned his attention back to Addison. “Do not be a fool, Danielle. Consider what you are doing.”

  “Then what should I do?” Danielle asked. “You said so yourself: the NDS isn’t doing anything. No one is looking for my father except them. I can’t trust them to find him, based on your own words.”

  “Let me ask you a question,” Alek said. “What happens if this guy has your father and plans to do to him what he did to that agent? You would be giving him exactly what he wanted. He would have you both.”

  Before Danielle could answer, there was another knock on the door.

  ‘Who the hell could that be?’ Danielle thought to herself.

  20

  "What is he doing here?" Luke asked, his midnight blue eyes resting on Alek. There was a cold suspicion about him as he regarded the vampire. Alek might have been an inch or two taller than he was, but both men had a similar build.

  "I'm visiting-"

  "Your student, so early in the morning?" Luke continued, cocking his head to the side and meeting Alek's narrowed gaze with his own. Neither man was afraid of the other and there was testosterone-filled tension brimming between the two of them. "I'm sure the board of teaching would love to learn their professors are so dedicated and compassionate towards their students."

  Alek's nostrils flared and his lips curled back to reveal retracted fangs. From the corner of her eye, she saw Addison tense, her eyes focused solely on Alek and Alek alone. She was afraid of him, Danielle realized. It didn't matter that Alek felt threatened or that he thought he was protecting himself. He appeared to be a monster. A beautiful monster, but a monster all the same.

  "I don't do well with threats, fairy," he said through gritted teeth.

  "What?" Aubrey asked, her eyes fixed on Luke. "What did you call him?"

  "Aubrey-" Luke began but Alek cut him off.

  "Do you have some sort of relationship with this human, fairy?" Alek said. "Yet you never thought to tell her what you truly are? Ironic, considering your agency outed all supernatural species, saying it was necessary the human population be ignorant no longer. I guess you just forgot about fairies, then?"

  "So it's true," Aubrey said, her jaw tight, her eyes cold and narrow. "I thought as much." She glanced over at Addison and then at Danielle. "I don't want to talk about anything. We have somewhere to be. Are you guys ready?"


  "You are not leaving," Alek said, grabbing Danielle's wrist gently but firmly. "You do not understand what threat Noah Wright poses to you."

  "I actually agree with him," Luke said, all traces of worry about Aubrey's reaction gone from his face. Danielle almost smirked. For two men who hated each other, they certainly were similar. "I came here to put you in protection, Ms. Hart. There's a very good chance Noah's pack has your father. If he means what he says and is attempting to get revenge on those that turned him into a werewolf, it wouldn't be a stretch for him to go after you as a way to get back at your father."

  "That's not what Noah said at all," Aubrey corrected. "He only did that to the agent because one of your agents killed an innocent werewolf - a werewolf your agency turned him into. He's not looking for revenge. He likes being a werewolf."

  "So now you're defending the actions of a psychopath?" Luke asked, his eyes flashing into Aubrey's. They were as impassive as ever, but there was a glimmer of something in his eyes: hurt.

  "I'm not," Aubrey said. "But he's not a psychopath. Whether you agree with it or not, Noah and his pack acted logically based on the laws and their new instincts: protect. The agent killed one of their pack members. That could be construed as a hate crime and an attack. In Noah's mind, he's defending himself. He has nothing against Danielle, and even if he had something against Danielle's father, it isn't likely he'd go after Danielle."

  “What makes you say that?” Alek asked, shooting Aubrey a cold, inquisitive look. There was an underlying question there, one Danielle picked up on but perhaps, no one else had. He wanted to know what Aubrey knew that he didn’t. Which meant Alek must know things. Which, actually, made sense because he had been around for so long that she was sure he had developed his own resources and relationships that would keep him abreast of what was going on with the supe world. Which meant Alek knew things about her father.

  “You knew,” she said to Alek, preventing Aubrey from explaining her opinion about Noah. “You knew about my father before it was even announced. “That’s why you didn’t react when we saw him on television.” She tilted her head to the side. “Is that why you-”

  “What is going on here?” Luke asked in his almost-monotone, professional voice. “Ms. Hart, I need to bring you into the department so I can start the process of obtaining protection for you.”

  “That is not going to happen,” Alek said, his voice tight, like he was losing his patience with Luke. Which wasn’t hard to do.

  “You don’t get to…” Luke’s voice trailed off as his eyes narrowed in on Danielle’s neck. “What the hell is that? He bit you? After everything I told you, you let him bite you?” His tone was an octave higher but he still wasn’t yelling. “Or did he do this to you without your consent?”

  Danielle pressed her lips together. She needed to be careful. As furious as she was with Alek, she wasn’t about to tell Luke his secret. She still cared about him. She still loved him. That wouldn’t change anytime soon. Technically, he did it in the dream he created and pulled her into. She gave her consent but, despite what he told her, she didn’t realize it would still stand in reality. But Danielle wouldn’t say that. Luke was looking for any reason to bring Alek in, any reason to get Alek off his back, especially now that Alek outed him as fairy. Danielle wouldn’t be that reason.

  “Not that it’s any of your business,” she said, flashing her eyes over at Luke, “but I gave Alek consent to initiate imprinting with me.”

  “You’re a goddamn fool,” Luke said.

  Alek stepped in front of Danielle, rolling his shoulders back. Despite the minuscule height difference, Alek seemed to tower over Luke.

  “What, did he tell you he loves you?” Luke asked, trying to look at Danielle from around Alek’s broad frame. “Did you buy his bullshit? Vampires don’t imprint. It’s impossible for them. How can they, when they don’t mate?”

  “That isn’t true,” Alek snapped. “We do mate. It’s just not as common for us. And, even if we didn’t have that ability, we still have the ability to bond. Just like humans or wolves who cannot breed, we can still unite and remain in an exclusive relationship without breeding.”

  “And that’s what you want from her?” Luke asked with a furrowed brow. It was clear he didn’t believe what Alek was saying and Danielle could understand that, to a degree. Alek wasn’t forthcoming about anything except, especially his feelings for an individual human female. Regardless, Luke had no right to speak to Alek this way. He wasn’t related to her, he shouldn’t care about her, and Danielle didn’t think he did. He was using her feelings for Alek, manipulating them in order to get her to do what he wanted. “You want a relationship, an exclusive relationship where you view each other as equal? You want to be with her for a portion of time, a speck of the life you’ll live?” He clenched his jaw. “Or are you serious about being with her? Are you planning to turn her into what you are?” His eyes dropped and he took Alek in. There was nothing short of disgust in his midnight blue eyes.

  “As I said before,” Alek said slowly, “my relationship with Danielle is none of your business.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why do you care?”

  “Excuse me?” Luke asked with clenched teeth.

  “Why are you doing this?” Aubrey asked, stepping forward. She looked between both men, her eyes fierce and unflinching. “Luke, why are you even here? At least Professor Eriksson has a reason to be here.”

  “That’s right,” Luke said. “He is her professor and he’s preventing her from taking protection.”

  “You were my trainer and that didn’t stop you from perusing me,” Aubrey murmured. Luke pressed his lips together but said nothing. “Don’t judge someone else’s relationship when you can’t even look in the mirror.” She glanced over at Danielle. “Danielle doesn’t want to go with you. She hasn’t been threatened. There’s no reason to scare her or to take her away from her life just because it would satisfy you and your agency, to show that you are doing something when you’re not.”

  “What do you know about Noah Wright?” Luke asked. He dropped his interest in Danielle and Alek and turned to Aubrey. “And don’t lie to me, Aubrey. I know you. You wouldn’t go gallivanting off into some assignment without preparing yourself adequately for it first. He beat someone to death and then ripped his throat out and you three are dressed and packed like you’re on some kind of road trip.”

  Aubrey looked him in the eyes and took a moment to collect her thoughts. “I know Noah Wright only attacks in defense or when he feels like he’s been threatened,” she replied. “That doesn’t make him a good guy by any means, but he doesn’t hide who he is.”

  Danielle’s brow shot up. That was a clear shot at Luke for hiding the fact that he was a fairy from her.

  “I don’t know who Noah is,” Aubrey went on. “He’s dangerous, yes. But he’s also a man with beast-like tendencies. I’m going so I can learn, not so I can judge. I’m going in hopes of getting more information on the whereabouts of where Danielle’s father is. This is our best lead and I’m following it.” She narrowed her eyes. “Which just begs the question: why aren’t you doing the same thing?”

  "And how do you know we're not?" Luke asked, shifting his eyes back to Aubrey. Danielle noticed there was something in them when he looked at her, something almost sad and longing. It was as though he hadn't wanted to break up with her at all, that he still possibly had feelings for her and it was difficult for him to hide that. With everyone else, he was cold and standoffish but with Aubrey, he seemed to be begging her to understand his position. If fairies begged. Which they absolutely did not, judging by his restraint in his tone. "Why do you think we don't know more than you do?"

  "I'm not doubting you don't at all," Aubrey said. "I know you do. I just don't trust that you're telling us everything."

  "And what makes you say that?" Luke asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  "Noah Wright should have been the first person you looked into, along with The Lone Wolf
," Aubrey said. "Both have reputations as violent men, both were given the serum Danielle's father created, and both don't seem extremely pleased about what happens to them because of the serum. Clearly, Noah loves being a werewolf but he doesn't like that he and his pack received no help or knowledge from the people who administered the serum - you guys. The fact that it takes you until after Noah kills someone on live television to actually look into him is suspect. And you're not even sure her father is there but you want to put her in protection, which makes no sense whatsoever. What about her mother or her brother? Why haven't you contacted them and put them in protection? The parents maybe divorced but they might still care about one another. Why do you only need Danielle?"

  Aubrey stared long and hard at her ex-boyfriend. Luke didn't back down from the gaze but he also made no move to clarify anything, either.

  "That information is classified," he murmured, his tone hollow and monotone.

  Aubrey rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?" she said. She looked back at Danielle. "As far as I know, protection is on a voluntary basis. Do you want to go with him?"

  Danielle shook her head and looked at Luke. "No," she said. "I'm sure you mean well, Luke, but I'm not going with you. I'm staying here."

  Luke clenched his jaw. "I was given explicit orders to take you in our custody for your protection," he said. "I can't go into details about why. I need you to trust me that the NDS has your best interests." He took a step towards her, prompting Alek to tense like he was some kind of jungle cat ready to pounce. "Please. Trust me."

  Danielle felt her heart clench together. She knew it must have taken a lot for Luke to say please, and the way he was looking at her, it almost felt as though he didn't trust many people, if anyone. Even so, he was asking her to trust him and she couldn't. Not because he was a bad person but because he worked for the NDS, almost blindly.