He Exchanged The Wrong Monster Chapter 1

The video call was grainy, but the terror in Harrison’s eyes was crystal clear. His "Golden Girl"—his perfect ex, Isabelle—had barely been back in the country for forty-eight hours before she was snatched.

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 Harrison’s voice, thick with a jagged, desperate kind of pain.

"I’m sorry, Sera. I can’t 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 python—thick as an old-growth oak—coiled 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.

* * *

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 hadn’t been my true self in years—not since I met Harrison.

My mother had warned me since I was a hatchling: never eat the humans. If you do, you’ll 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 destiny—and she ended up bottled in a Hunter’s 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 I’d 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 city’s most eligible bachelor—handsome, obscenely wealthy, and miraculously scandal-free. They told me to grab the opportunity with both hands.

But I didn’t 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 I’d blown through my semester’s living expenses in two months. When I called my mother, she told me she was broke and that I needed to figure it out.

"You’re a grown woman now, Sera," she’d 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. I’d 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. I’ll make sure you never have to work a shift again. You can eat whatever you want, on my tab."