He Exchanged The Wrong Monster
The kidnappers weren't just asking for thirty million in cash. They wanted a trade. They wanted me.
I pointed at my own chest, genuinely baffled. Why would a group of professional criminals want a girl like me? I was a nobody, a girl from a backwoods town with no pedigree and no social standing. But then I heard Harrisons voice, thick with a jagged, desperate kind of pain.
"Im sorry, Sera. I cant let anything happen to Isabelle."
Before I could process the betrayal, his security detail moved in. A sharp blow to the back of my head sent the world spinning into black.
When I woke up, I was in the hands of monsters. I watched through heavy eyelids as Harrison traded me like a piece of currency, his arms wrapped around an unconscious Isabelle as he turned his back on me without a second glance. He carried her away like she was a fragile treasure, leaving me in the dirt.
Once the sound of his engine faded into the distance, the leader of the group set up a tripod. He started unbuckling his belt, his eyes roaming over me with a predatory hunger.
I looked around the abandoned warehouse, my voice steady despite the situation. "Is Harrison gone? Are they all really gone?"
The man laughed, a wet, ugly sound. "Not a soul for miles, sweetheart. You must have really pissed off the wrong people to end up as a sacrificial lamb."
As his hand reached out to touch my face, I finally let out a long, weary sigh of relief.
"Good," I whispered. "They're gone."
In a blur of shifting bone and scales, I shed my skin. Within seconds, a massive white pythonthick as an old-growth oakcoiled where a girl had been. I didn't give him time to scream. I opened my jaws and swallowed him whole.
his crew stood frozen, their bravado evaporating into whimpers. I didn't give them a head start. One by one, I picked them off like grapes until the warehouse was silent.
1
I let out a soft, satisfied burp. I didn't shift back into my human form immediately; instead, I lay there in the dust, basking in the rare sensation of a full belly and a quiet mind.
I hadnt been my true self in yearsnot since I met Harrison.
My mother had warned me since I was a hatchling: never eat the humans. If you do, youll either be struck down by the heavens or caught by a Hunter. My aunt had made the mistake of consuming a man who possessed a "purple aura"a mark of destinyand she ended up bottled in a Hunters cellar, steeping in medicinal wine.
After that, our clan retreated into the deep forests. It was only in the last few decades that we dared to venture out again. My mother insisted that the world had changed; she said being illiterate was the new death sentence. So, she sent me to school as soon as I could hold a human shape.
I discovered that I loved human food. By the time I moved from my rural county to the city for university, I realized the world was a buffet of flavors Id never dreamed of.
That was where I met Harrison.
The first time we locked eyes, he stared at me for what felt like an eternity. I didn't know then that it was because I shared a fifty-percent resemblance to the woman who had broken his heart. All I knew was that he pursued me with a frantic, almost obsessive energy.
My roommates were envious. Harrison was the citys most eligible bachelorhandsome, obscenely wealthy, and miraculously scandal-free. They told me to grab the opportunity with both hands.
But I didnt care about the flowers or the designer jewelry he sent. I returned every gift, untouched.
Instead, I took a job as a server at a high-end hotel. My appetite was expensive, and Id blown through my semesters living expenses in two months. When I called my mother, she told me she was broke and that I needed to figure it out.
"Youre a grown woman now, Sera," shed hissed over the phone. "If you want to live among the humans, learn to earn your own keep."
Useless old woman. Hundreds of years old and not a cent in savings.
So, I worked the hotel shifts. Id read online that hotel staff could sometimes sneak the leftovers from the banquet halls. It seemed like the perfect plan: get paid and get fed.
I was in a private suite, devouring a tray of untouched lobster tails and prime rib, when Harrison walked back into the room. I froze, a giant lobster claw halfway to my mouth. He stared at me in silence for a long moment, and then, to my surprise, he laughed.
"Sera," he said, his voice soft. "Let me take you to dinner."
It was the first time anyone had ever offered to feed me.
He took me to a five-course gala. He watched, mesmerized and slightly terrified, as I cleared every plate on the table. His hand trembled slightly as he set down his scotch.
"I had no idea you were so... hungry." He paused, a strange look in his eyes. "But I can afford to keep you full. Sera, move in with me. Ill make sure you never have to work a shift again. You can eat whatever you want, on my tab."
2
The moment he said those words, Harrison became the most beautiful man Id ever seen.
I wiped my mouth, unable to resist the lure of a lifetime supply of gourmet meals. "Fine. Deal."
I moved out of the dorms and into a sprawling estate Harrison bought for me. He hired two professional chefs who prepared a feast every single night.
I called my mother while gnawing on a roasted duck leg. "Mom, look! I have a boyfriend. He bought me a house, and he covers all the catering. I'm retired."
My mother sounded skeptical. "Sera, are you sure you aren't being scammed? Humans don't just give away free food."
I pulled a perfectly clean bone from my mouth. "I don't think so. Hes great. Room, board, and a huge monthly allowance. He's way more generous than you ever were."
"Watch yourself," she muttered. "Men have hidden faces. If things get dangerous, you shift and you run. Understand?"
"Ive got it under control," I said, waving her off.
The sunlight caught the diamonds on my new bracelet, nearly blinding her through the screen. She squinted. "He bought that too?"
I nodded.
A look of realization dawned on her face. "Sera... youre a kept woman. Hes 'maintaining' you."
"Maintaining?" I tilted my head, trying to find the right human term. "Is that like being a pet? Like a... domestic animal?"
I wasn't sure. I was a snake. Being "maintained" sounded a bit weird, but being "fed and housed" made perfect sense for a predator of my stature.
"Whatever it is," my mom said, "if hes giving you that much money, Venmo me a few hundred. I just learned how to use Amazon, and I need some gardening supplies."
It was pathetic how poor she was after four centuries. I transferred ten thousand to her account. "Spend it. Let me know when you need more."
She practically teared up. "My daughter, the success story."
For four years, I lived a life of pampered luxury. There were rumors at the university about my "arrangement," but Harrison shut them down by publicly declaring me his girlfriend. He treated me well, so I tried to be a good partner in return.
Two years ago, Harrisons business rivals kidnapped him. I tracked them to an old cannery and took them out single-handedly. His right hand had been crushed in the struggle. To heal him, I exhausted nearly all my spiritual essencethe energy that allowed me to keep my human form. I barely managed to drag him to safety before I felt my skin start to itch and tighten.
Luckily, he was unconscious. He never saw me revert to the twenty-foot monster that I was. If he had, he would have been horrified.
Now, lying in the dirt of the warehouse, I thought back to a few weeks ago. Harrison had taken me to a high-society gala, claiming he wanted to finally introduce me to his inner circle.
I remembered the way they looked at me when I entered the roomlike I was a cheap knockoff in a designer dress.
They didn't even try to hide their whispers.
"I told you Harrison couldn't get over Isabelle. Look at that face. Its a mirror image."
"Shes a total rube, though. No class. Isabelle had grace. This girl looks like shes just happy to be invited."
"Isabelle is coming back next month. I wonder how fast hell dump the placeholder."
I didn't understand all their metaphors, but I understood the venom.
Harrisons face had darkened. "Thats enough. Sera is my guest. If anyone has a problem with her, they have a problem with me."
The room went quiet, but the atmosphere remained cold. Later, while Harrison was distracted, a woman in a gown that cost more than my first car cornered me near the restrooms.
"Don't get comfortable," she sneered. "Youre a distraction. A way for him to spite Isabelle for leaving. When the real thing comes home, the counterfeit gets tossed in the trash."
3
I blinked at her, unfazed. "Who is Isabelle?"
The woman gasped, her voice hitting a shrill note. "You don't even know? Typical."
She took great pleasure in explaining it to me. Isabelle was the childhood sweetheart. The "Golden Girl." The only woman Harrison had ever truly loved. Theyd had a massive falling out, shed moved to Paris, and Harrison had been a ghost of a man until he found me.
"He only chose you because you look like her," the woman finished, looking me up and down with disgust. "Learn your place."
I felt a strange, sharp pang in my chest. I remembered the nights Harrison would get drunk and pull me close, whispering "Isa" into my hair. I had thought it was a pet name. Now I knew it was just a different name entirely.
A month later, Isabelle actually returned.
Harrison became a different person. He was distracted, distant. He would stare at his phone for hours, ignoring the feasts Id prepared.
I sat across from him one night, my chin in my hands. "Do you miss her? Isabelle?"
Id spent the week listening to his friends tell stories about them. How hed skipped school for her. How hed fought his parents to be with her. How hed flown her to the Maldives for her twenty-first birthday. His entire youth had been a monument to her.
Harrison froze, then shook his head. "Don't talk about her. Thats over. Its just you and me, Sera."
He blocked her number. He declined the parties where shed be present. He acted like a man made of stone, refusing to see her.
Until the news broke that she had been taken.
Harrisons composure shattered. He pushed me aside so hard I nearly fell, sprinting out of the house screaming her name.
When the ransom video arrived, showing Isabelle tied to a chair, pale and trembling, Harrison looked like he was the one being tortured. The kidnappers voice was distorted, demanding the money andspecificallyme.
"The choice is yours, Mr. Sterling. Which one matters more?"
Harrison let out a choked sound, his fist slamming into the mahogany desk. "Its the rivals from two years ago. Theyre back for blood." He looked at me, his eyes bloodshot and foreign. "Im sorry, Sera. I cant let her die."
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