Chapter Nine

Naga

I trusted planes more than trains but Jasmine insisted airplanes freaked her out. Something about the recycled air and barreling through the air in a glorified coke can with peanut and water bottles not big enough to quench a fairy's thirst.

With a stranger in the house, precautions had to be taken. We rarely had visitors and kept the outside monitored with security cameras and state-of-the-art alarms.

But we had our serpents to protect us, as well as our combined years of military training. Someone would be stupid to try and break in, but Jasmine would be here for ninety days. Three months. We wouldn't have eyes on her twenty-four hours a day.

She could slip into the basement and see all kinds of things she did not have security clearance for. While we were mostly a government contractor, we also had outside clients, some possibly unsavory, but all we did was collect information. What they did with the data was their business.

We had a lot to protect.

And Jasmine, until she proved herself otherwise, had become one of those things.

To my serpent, she was the only thing worthy of protection.

But that animal didn't pay the bills.

"What did you get?" I asked. Drake came in with large paper bags from the electronics store in the city. Normally, we would've ordered online, and it would have been a lot cheaper, but with Jasmine coming in the next day, not even overnight shipping would cut it.

"An electronic key code lock. But I bought an old-fashioned padlock as well. Can't be too careful."

He was right, but I chuckled anyway. From the measures we were taking, you'd think we were dragons defending our hoard.

"Tell me this, Drake, since you like stepping into others' shoes. What's Jasmine going to think about all of this? She comes to our home. Virtual strangers. Knows not a lot about us and she comes in and sees a padlock on the basement door. See where I'm going with this?"

"She's going to think we have bodies in the basement or something. She'll run screaming."

Drake looked at the bags then back at me. His body began to shake as a wide smile formed on his face. "What was I thinking?"

I joined him in laughter. "No clue, man, but stop it. Keypad, yes. Padlock, definitely not. Unless she comes here and you decide you don't like her, then by all means…"

"Stop it. We like her. And we told her we were in cybersecurity, which, we technically are."

"You're right," I answered. "We do like her. Let's get this done."

The keypad was a breeze to install, and we tested it several times, choosing a code we would both easily remember. We also texted the number to each other, no context included, for safety's sake. Not getting into our office would be a ride we didn't want to take.

I meandered up to the guest bedroom with the new towels and other things Drake had picked up while he was in the city. He had gone to more than the electronics store. A small town lay a few miles from our home, but when we needed more than milk and eggs, we either had it delivered or made a trip to the city. Before today, neither of us had gone in months. Maybe six months.

The guest suite lay at the top of the stairs. There were three bedrooms on the second floor, but Drake and I chose the smaller bedrooms downstairs. We only slept there, anyway. Some would call what we did napping in between long strains of work.

The master suite next to the one we planned for her to use was always meant for our mate but, while we put effort into the end game, we never planned on getting there being so hard.

We worked all the time, giving us little chance to meet someone.

Ordering everything online kept us even more isolated.

Our dating attempts didn't go well and soon fizzled out.

But the room was still here, reminding us that we hadn't found her. Taunting us with our failure.

I would never think less of someone else who didn't have a mate, but not being able to find ours felt like an epic strike against us.

My parents had met in high school and Drake's parents right out of college. Most shifters found their mates early in their twenties if they had to wait that long.

"Everything in its place?" Drake asked.

Damn it. I'd been so deep in thought I hadn't even heard him come up the stairs.

"You're still standing at the door holding that stack of towels. Is something wrong?"

Overthinking everything?

"Just thinking. I'll put these in the bathroom. Can you open the windows? Let's air it out a bit."

Drake nodded. "I can do that."

We had cleaned the room the night before and honestly it felt good to do more physical work. My body stretched and strained standing up so much, which worried me more than anything. I needed to get more physical activity in. Drake even suggested a standing desk for the both of us. Plus, we decided to get a workout in every morning. We managed to get a few in during the week, but now we planned for a more daily routine.

Plus, we wanted to get in better shape for our mate, if Jasmine was the one.