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

by Isadora Brown

  She nearly fell asleep when a knock on the door prevented her from doing much of anything else except snap awake and check the peephole to see who, exactly, it was.

  When she saw the familiar strawberry blonde hair and the flower tote over her shoulder stuffed with paper and notebooks, Danielle immediately let Aubrey in and locked the door behind the two. She didn't bother to check to see if Ryder was waiting for her. In fact, Danielle wouldn't have thought he was the type and she wouldn't have thought she was worth the wait to him, but he had been acting strangely the past few weeks so, in her mind, anything was possible.

  "Where have you been?" Aubrey asked as she slipped through the door. Danielle was quick to shut and lock it, closing her eyes for a brief second before closing her eyes for a brief respite. "I've been texting you all night. I figured out something really important about your dad and the whole thing and-"

  "Aubrey," Danielle said sharply, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers and shutting her eyes once again. "I'm really hungover and just got back from Alek's place. Before you ask, we didn't do anything."

  "I wouldn't have asked," Aubrey mumbled. She walked over to Danielle's small dining table and started unloading her tote and placing her papers and her notebooks down. She glanced up, through her long hair, and curled the tresses behind her ear. "You okay?"

  Danielle nodded, sliding into the seat and placing her head in her hands. "I went out with my friends last night," she explained. "You know the underground club Vampyre? One of my friends has a Black Card so we got in and he happened to be there." She shook her head without opening her eyes. "I drank too much. Oh my God, I drank way too much. I went home with Alek but not because we were going to do anything. Actually, we were but I blacked out. No, I threw up first, apparently all over my dress, which is why I'm in his shirt and..." She let her voice trail off. "I'm sorry. Now I'm babbling."

  "Why did you," Aubrey murmured, curling more hair behind her ear, her voice shy. "Why did you tell me that?"

  Danielle raised her head and locked eyes with Aubrey. "To be honest, I have no idea," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

  "No one really tells me anything," Aubrey pointed out as she slid into the seat next to Danielle. "People don't trust me, probably for good reason. I mean, I'm not cutthroat in that every piece of information I get is going to automatically be investigated and put in the paper. I'm a trustworthy person. I don't tell things unless, unless I feel compelled to. It's just, nobody thinks they can trust me which is why I really don't have a lot of friends. Or any, to be honest. And I just want to say that I really appreciate the fact that you do trust me. With all of that."

  Danielle glanced up at Aubrey and could see the sincerity on her face. She hadn't even meant to tell Aubrey anything, but the truth of the matter was that it felt good to get this off of her chest. And she did trust Aubrey, despite the fact that she was a journalist and her goal was to expose secrets. And what Danielle had with Alek was as big as a secret could get. Even then, Aubrey hadn't judged Danielle for it, hadn't warned her about his bachelor reputation or the fact that he was a vampire. In fact, Aubrey hadn't really said much of anything, save for the fact that she agreed how cute he was. And the only reason Aubrey had come to her in the first place was because she had been concerned with Danielle and wanted to help solve her father's case. It was more than the NDS was doing, at least.

  Aubrey was a friend. Maybe not one that Danielle asked for, but one she didn't know she needed.

  "Anyway..." Aubrey reached back and scratched the back of her head, glancing away. "I don't want to take up too much of your time but I found a connection between your father and everything going on."

  Danielle perked her brow but besides that, she couldn't find it in her to show any more enthusiasm. After Aubrey left, she planned to crawl into bed and sleep the day away before she had to worry about Monday morning and seeing Alek once more. She placed her head in her hand, resisting the urge to take another aspirin. The dose she had taken at Alek’s had alleviated her headache until a full throb but it was still enough where she was sensitive to it.

  "After I left the first time, I did some digging," she explained. "My intention was to research the two men in question - the leader of The Lone Wolf Pack and the man we only really know as Revenge - and see if there are any connections between the two of them, find out what I could. It turns out, they were both injured soldiers in the army."

  Danielle blinked. "Were the soldiers from an opposing army?" she asked, needing some sort of clarification.

  Aubrey shook her head. "Our army," she said. "They were on death's door until they were forcibly volunteered to undergo experimental drugs to see if they could keep these men alive by giving them the regenerative DNA that werewolves possessed."

  Danielle couldn't find it in her to say anything. What could she possibly say?

  "Wait," she said slowly, looking at Aubrey for certain clarification. "You're saying that these men would have died but they turned them into werewolves instead?"

  Aubrey nodded. "Yes," she said with a nod. "They brought them here and did it at a compound located deep in the Sterling Forest. That Lone Wolf group? They're experiments. They were all genetically enhanced werewolves."

  "Which means they weren't born a werewolf or turned into one due to a bite, they were created in a lab," Danielle said slowly, turning her attention back to Aubrey.

  "Exactly," Aubrey said with a nod of her head.

  "But what does this have to do with my father?" Danielle asked.

  "Remember that sheet I showed you?" Aubrey asked. "The time sheet?" When Danielle nodded, Aubrey continued. "Well, I was trying to figure out where he worked, you know? Obviously, it's confidential. No one knew, not even Luke. But I thought if the Lone Wolf Pack was genetically enhanced, how could they have broken free from the NDS? Unless they took over the compound they were being studied."

  "You think that compound belongs to the NDS?" Danielle asked.

  Aubrey nodded. "I think it's where they were turned," Aubrey said. "I think they overthrew the NDS and took them hostage. The general public doesn't know about it but the NDS does."

  "And my dad?"

  "Your dad is the reason for all of this," Aubrey said. "It's his research and I think he was the one who administered the serum and tracked the change. I think your dad is still at the compound with the Lone Wolf Pack. I think they're holding him hostage."

  11

  The next day, Danielle struggled to wake up. It was starting to get colder so today she threw on a long sleeved form-fitting navy shirt and a high-waist black miniskirt over black tights and black ankle boots. Her hair was straightened from the previous night so she ran a brush through it and styled it into a ponytail. She grabbed her book bag and slung it over her shoulder before heading out.

  Campus was overcast and misty. There were few people walking around. The majority of the students were probably at one of the three cafes placed in each department, crowding the small enclosure in hopes to get a hot drink and shelter from the cold. Even though Danielle got cold easily, she loved the weather. It was more comfortable for her and it forced her to exercise more than she did.

  When she got to class, she had completely forgotten about everything that had transpired between her and Alek the previous weekend. Up until she saw him in a silver suit, molded to his body like he was born in it, sitting at his desk. His hair was slicked back, as per usual, and he didn't even pick up his cold blue eyes up when she walked by. Danielle pretended it didn't bother her as she slid into her seat and started to take out her notebook but she had hoped that perhaps, just perhaps, that he had noticed her. But when he didn't even look up from what he was going, she clenched her jaw and pushed away her disappointment. She was moving on from him, moving on from her feelings.

  "Hey."

  Ryder's voice from beside her interrupted her thoughts from heading down a dangerous place, something she was grateful for.

  She turned to look at
him and quirked a brow. "What's up?" she asked.

  Despite the feeling of appreciation she had for the minor distraction, she still felt relatively disgruntled at his behavior regarding supes and privacy issues. They had spoken since but always superficially, and a lot of the time, Danielle did her best to try to ignore him as much as possible. The only thing that would even interest her in speaking to him was to try and find out why he would ever intern at the NDS when he was adamant about being a teacher.

  "I just wanted to check in with you and see how you're doing," he said, turning in his seat so he was facing her. He reached out and placed his hand on her knee, giving it an intimate squeeze. "I saw the news over the weekend. Still nothing on your father."

  Danielle clenched her jaw. She tried to remind herself that he was coming from a genuine place. He knew her father briefly, he had met him before, and he knew that he did know that she cared about him. But she hated the sympathetic look on his eyes, the softness of his facial features. He had no right to feel sympathy for her, not in the way where he felt compelled to show it through touching.

  "What are you doing, Ryder?" she asked him, her voice deadpan.

  "What do you mean?" Ryder asked, perking his brow.

  Danielle gave him a beat to realize he was touching her leg, her face dry. When he didn't let go, she made a dramatic swoop to push his hand off her knee.

  "You don't get to touch me, Ryder," she told him. "Even if you're about to tell me you didn't mean anything by it and the context isn't what I think it is, you don't get to have the right to touch me anymore. It's a little frustrating that you think you do."

  Ryder gave Danielle a look that said he thought she was crazy. She absolutely hated that look on any guy but especially coming from him. It aggravated her and she could feel her blood start to boil as her feelings were not only dismissed, but manipulated and used against her so she was thought to be the crazy one, not the other way around.

  "Okay, Dani," he murmured. "I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to show you I was concerned about you, considering the fact that your father is still missing and I know how much he meant to you."

  Danielle glanced around, hoping her classmates didn't overhear Ryder's long speech. Nobody knew who her father was. After Aubrey's revelation, Danielle didn't even know if she really knew who he was. All she knew was that he was gone and he might be indirectly responsible for The Lone Wolf and that crazy werewolf compound that might or might not be housing actual humans who actually want to be there. That unto itself was crazy and too complicated to even think about right now. All she knew was that a bunch of genetically enhanced werewolves were super pissed at her father and he was gone and there was nothing anyone could do. The NDS sure as hell wasn't doing anything, especially considering he was one of their top researchers and highly-paid developing scientists.

  Ryder had no right to talk about her father, no right to talk about a man he didn't even know, and then use that as an excuse to touch her.

  Danielle pressed her lips together. She didn't want to say anything rude. As unlikely as it was, there was a chance Ryder was being sincere. Maybe he had moved on to the point where touching her meant nothing to him so he didn't think twice about it. She rolled her eyes at that. Fat chance.

  "I appreciate your concern," she said through gritted teeth, trying to keep a hold of her temper. "Really, I do. But I'm fine. And I would appreciate it if maybe, just maybe, you let me be."

  "I just thought we could be friends, Dani," he told her. He tilted his head to the side, his eyes clear and sympathetic. It was hard not to fall back into those eyes. She had fallen in love with them so quickly before...

  Danielle forced herself to shut her eyes. No. she couldn't fall back into that trap. Not here, not now. "Maybe that's what you want, Ryder," she told him, "but I'm not there yet. I understand you knew me but you don't anymore. We've grown apart. We broke up - for a reason. And maybe at the time I didn't understand, but I get it now. I do. And that means we're two people who knew each other then but who don't anymore. And that's okay."

  Ryder looked at her like she was crazy, then narrowed his eyes and leaned towards her. "I saw you, you know," he told her in a hushed voice, even though class was probably going to start in the next few minutes and students were starting to quiet their conversations. "The other day, walking around in high heels and a man's t-shirt. You were doing the walk of shame, Dani."

  Under normal circumstances, Danielle might have blushed. She probably would have tried to deny it and then she would have manipulated his words and turned them around so she wasn't the culprit he was making her out to be. But now, after everything that had happened, she was over trying to deny and manipulate the situation to her favor. At this point, she didn't particularly care what anyone thought of her, especially an ex-boyfriend who broke up with her and was now trying to dictate her life and her behavior.

  Instead, she looked Ryder straight in the eye and told him, "What I do is none of your business, Ryder. The minute you walked out of my life, you forfeited that right. So you can judge me if you want, I really don't care, but you don't get to make comments like that to my face and expect me to change just because you don't think I should act that way."

  "Honestly, Dani, I could care less what you do in your personal life," he told her. "Really, I don't care. But I do care about you. I wasn't lying to you when I told you that I want to be your friend. But friend to friend, it looks a little slutty to be running around in some guy's t-shirt and high heels around campus in the morning."

  Danielle grinned. "I can be the biggest slut on campus and you can't do a damn thing about it, Ryder," she said. She had no idea why she was being intolerant of him, why she was so annoyed when she genuinely believed that he believed he was coming from a good place. "I can fuck a vampire and you can't do a damn thing about it."

  Before Danielle could even blink, Ryder lunged for her. Before he even touched her, Alek intervened in a flash and grabbed Ryder by the shoulders, preventing him from touching her. Everyone in class was looking at Ryder, everyone in class was looking at her, and she suddenly realized that maybe she should have been a little more tactful with her words. She knew it would get a reaction out of him, she just didn't realize he would react so... violently. He had never been violent with her before, even during his temper tantrums. Maybe this whole NDS thing was putting more stress on him than she initially believed.

  "I suggest," Alek said in a low growl, his eyes narrowed and vicious and nothing short of predatory in his midnight blue eyes, "you desist from even thinking about placing one finger on her person."

  Ryder's eyes flashed into Alek's and he clenched his jaw so tightly it popped. He looked like he was going to challenge the professor, perhaps even struggle against his rock-solid grip, but instead, he did nothing except glare.

  Danielle's heart started to slow to a pound, hard and steady like a drum. She had no idea what had just happened but she was certain if she had just kept her mouth shut, Ryder wouldn't be in the position he was in, Alek wouldn't have felt compelled to defend her, and everyone in class wouldn't be staring at them right now.

  Ryder said nothing. "Get your hands off of me," he said in a low voice so that only Alek and Danielle could hear him. "You fucking leech."

  Instead of getting mad, Alek smiled. Like it was some kind of joke.

  "Touch her again," Alek said, his voice nothing more than a threatening whisper, "and you'll see what it's like to deal with us leeches." He finally released Ryder and dusted his hands off. "Mr. Carson, you can leave for the day and don't return until you're ready to sit and learn. Ms. Darrow, stay after class. We need to discuss what happened just now."

  Class was long and torturous. She had no idea what Alek was going to tell her after class. Probably lecture her for her mouth, for pushing Ryder, for... She shook her head, trying to focus. Alek was talking about sisterly affection and whether or not sisters in Jane Austen novels shared rooms and, if they did, why this w
as important. She took notes and nodded at the appropriate times but she couldn't bring herself to answer any of his questions, even when his eyes flickered over to her, waiting.

  When class was over, Danielle gathered her things but didn't bother getting up, not until the door finally closed after the last student and she and Alek were finally alone. She slung her tote over her shoulder and walked to his desk.

  "You wanted to speak to me?" she asked, raising a brow.

  Alek stared at her a long moment, causing her to shift uncomfortably under his gaze. "Are you all right?" he finally asked, his tone uncharacteristically sincere.

  "I - yes." To say Danielle was surprised would be an understatement.

  "I heard your conversation," Alek said. He didn't have to explain that as a vampire, he had enhanced hearing. "I didn't realize he was at your dorm."

  "He wasn't," she corrected quickly. "He was just there. I ignored him."

  "I don't like that he thinks he can be there," Alek murmured, a small edge to his voice. He reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. His thumb traced her bottom lip, his eyes dropping to watch. Danielle didn't mean to but her tongue darted across her lower lip, accidentally brushing against his thumb. His eyes widened and before she realized what he was doing, he placed his lips onto hers.

  12

  The couple broke apart as quickly as they connected. Somehow, Danielle was already out of breath and the minute he wasn't kissing her anymore, she felt without and empty. His eyes were a dark blue, the color of the night sky cast in the glow of the full moon. The look on his face was possessive and the hands on her waist were tight and rough, like he wasn't going to let her go for anything and he was probably going to bruise her skin while he was at it.