Chapter Six

Naga

My body was crying out for me to get up. My back twanged with aching pain. My upper torso pulled between my shoulder blades. The tugging in my neck. All of these things could no longer be denied.

I needed to get up and stretch. Not to mention, nausea from a day filled with sustenance but nothing close to a real meal.

The second my ass came off the chair, a chime came from my personal laptop. I usually didn't even bring it down here but, after signing up for the mating app, I had to. Especially since my phone was upstairs charging.

Drake stopped typing, and our eyes met. Even in the darkness, the only lights coming from our computers and a small lamp on the other side of the room, his green eyes bored into me.

We were both more than eager to see if this mating app would prove its worth.

I leaned over and clicked on the notification to see what it was. It said, you have a match.

My hand shook as I watched the window enlarge and go straight to the mating site.

"What is it?" Drake asked, leaning back in his chair.

"We have a match."

"Who?" Drake poised his hand over the keyboard. I knew what he was up to. We had to be careful about who we let in this house. Maybe we were paranoid, but in our business, we had some enemies. Plus, if the wrong person had access to the millions of files and information we had, it could be a disaster.

"Her name is Jasmine Cross."

He huffed a breath out of his nose. "She sounds like a spy."

I laughed but sat back down, doing some research of my own. I didn't tell Drake how beautiful she was or that the shape of her body could make a grown man weep.

He would find that out on his own.

"She doesn't look like a spy," I replied, watching my friend lean toward his monitor.

"No fucking kidding. Are you looking at her socials?"

I nodded. "Yep. She's a book cover designer. Romance novels, looks like." I didn't know a lot about fictional book covers but from the responses to her work online, it seemed like she had created a good career for herself.

"She could be on a damned cover."

I chuckled. "You're not wrong. What else are you seeing?"

"Looks like her parents are alive, but there are only pictures on holidays. Lots of friends. Was just a bridesmaid in a wedding. Fantastic credit but lots of debt. Student loans mostly. No criminal history. No warrants. The only place she's traveled to is Mexico and Belize on some cruise right after turning eighteen."

I clicked through pictures, not seeing anything different than what he was seeing. "So she's not a Russian spy?" I asked.

"Shut up. You know we have to be careful."

I did.

"She sent us a message, Drake."

He finally looked up from the screen. "What did she say?"

"Hello, Naga and Drake. I'm interested in getting to know both of you better. I look forward to hearing from you."

"Finding someone through something so cold as a website feels so distant."

I hadn't realized my best friend was so old-fashioned. "I think you're putting a limitation on Fate, Drake. The regular methods haven't worked. What is your serpent telling you?"

"He wants her. He's already anchoring himself to the idea that she belongs to us."

Mine was as well. "What's our next move?"

He shook his head, tapping his lip as he continued to stare at Jasmine's picture.

"I want to see her. See how she talks. Watch the way she moves. Hear her voice. See her smile. Can we ask for a video chat?"

"Of course we can. We have to accept the match first. You're sure about her?"

Drake looked up, nodding. "Yeah. But we're in this together. What's your animal saying?"

I felt the corners of my lips draw upward into a smile. Yeah, Drake and I shared our laughs on a day-to-day basis, but this was different. A surge of hope built in my chest.

My serpent wanted Jasmine to be ours, and I told my best friend so.

"You're messaging her, or am I?" he asked.

"I'll do it. I'm already on the website."

I sent Jasmine a message and let a whoosh of breath flow out of me. "It's done." I shut the laptop or I'd spend the rest of the evening staring at her pictures, which my serpent very much wanted me to.

"Now we wait again?" Drake asked.

"Now we wait. In the meantime, let's get something real to eat."

Waiting was the worst part, but a part of me knew that Jasmine would be worth it, even if we had to wait a lifetime.