Page 2 of Delivered to My Serpents

We had this discussion after every ceremony. I was about as sick of it as Anya would be tomorrow morning.

“I could get on there and have no matches?” I said, revealing the real reason I hadn’t followed their lead and downloaded the app. Sure, it seemed like a good way to meet a mate, especially since my best friends were loved and content with the mates they found there, but there was also something awkward about it.

Plus, I didn’t want to get hurt.

And the fear of getting my heart broken was the deciding factor in all my dating and relationships thus far.

“Oh, come on. Give me a break. You are gorgeous, and you know it.”

“There’s more to it than that, Beth. You can’t truly know someone through an app and I’m not a shifter, so I can’t just run up and smell them. I…even people who are in a relationship don’t ever really know each other.”

“That’s not true,” Anya said. “Besides, that’s what the getting-to-know-you period is for. Most matches on the app take ninety days to get to know each other.”

“I dare you,” Beth said, squaring her shoulders. “Sign up for the app. Look around, and I bet you will have some matches.”

I didn’t take her seriously because she was a little drunk. Her cheeks were even flushed.

“Yeah. Okay. I’ll do that.”

“Yes!” Anya said, standing and then almost falling. “All the things. Apps. Mates. Bets. Monies.”

Gods alive, she was more drunk than I thought.

They would never remember this bet or dare—whatever the hell it was.

Chapter Two

Naga

My stomach rumbled, but I ignored it in favor of the task on the screen.

“Eat something, Naga.” Drake pushed his half-eaten bag of chips in my direction with a low growl.

“I’d rather go hungry than to eat that shit.” I turned the bag around before the smell of cheese powder and franken-seasoning blend hit my nose again.

He chuckled. “Then go upstairs and eat. Your stomach is irritating me, and I’m trying to finish up this project.”

Everything irritated Drake when he was immersed in a project. He was completing an intelligence report for some secret government agency. I never understood why they didn’t have their own analysts, or at least chose not to use them, but we didn’t care.

The money in the bank was worth it to keep our mouths shut and our questions to ourselves.

I pushed back from the desk and took a moment to stretch, pulling my arms over my head and bending left and right to extend the movement.

I took the stairs up to the main part of the house, feeling the tug in my calves from sitting too long. We had standing desks, and sometimes I did stand, but for the most part, we sat, hunching over our desks for hours and, in today’s case, not eating breakfast or lunch.

The setting sun filtered through the windows that lined the back of our home. I sighed in response to the lavenders and pale roses that painted a backdrop to the trees around our house. Another day spent in the dungeon, as Drake called it. Tucked away from the world. From the sunlight. From any chance of connection with the outside world.

I heated up some leftover rotisserie chicken and made some sandwiches for myself and Drake. Sandwiches were fine with me, and our work was fulfilling, but things were getting stale for me.

They were for Drake as well. We weren’t complainers, for the most part. It was part of our therapy. See the good. Look for the positive. Try to be one part better every day.

Flowery words, but the person who gave them to us to chant had no clue what it was like for us to be in our bodies, bearing the scars of what we had been through when we were deployed. Sure, each of us had sessions where we divulged details and experiences we would otherwise never speak of, but they were simply that—words.

No one could feel the wounds for us. Hear the zipping of bullets or the booms of explosions. Civilians didn’t know the way the ground shook when a tank drove by or hear the cries of children even when there were none around.

They could listen and sympathize, but the experience wouldn’t ever be threaded through them like it was for us.

I downed the sandwiches while listening to the crickets and frogs alert us that night was on the way.

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