Page 63 of How to Seduce a Slender

And Melody did remember. As her heart sank and she sobbed harder. Reaching her arms pitifully through the bars of the fence to try and grab her wolf. The other half of her stared up with painful red eyes, tears streaking its matted, chestnut fur. A mangled third eye opened at the center of its forehead and Melody wailed. “No! I would never! I would never do that!”

“But you did!” The hag cackled, bending half backward.

“No!” she shrieked, but she knew the truth. Melody was a scared little girl in a witch’s hut in the middle of the Nightmare Realm. Little Melody looked the witch in the eye, begging her to take her home.I just wanna go home. I just wanna go home. I just wanna go home.What did she know of eldritch deals or wicked witches of the woods. She was a child trapped. She was lost. She wasn’t alone…Giovanni was right there. He held her tight in his arms as they begged the witch to let them go.

“Nasty work that necromancer did on your noggin’,” the witch cooed, shaking her head. “But our deal was final. One pelt for a one-way ticket back home.”

And Melody shook the woman’s hand. She remembered facing the door to the hut, told to run as fast and hard as she could out the door. She remembered flying out that door and feeling her soul tear in two. Like someone ripped the flesh from her bones. Melody fell through a portal and tumbled across the dead leaves in the haunted forest with a massive open wound along her back. Screaming and howling in pain, she tried to climb to her feet, but her legs didn’t work. But when she turned to find Giovanni, he wasn’t beside her.

He was a pile of pulp just beyond the protective forcefield being dragged away by something. Melody’s vision cracked like glass, and it shattered as she screamed even louder.

“No,” Melody wailed, sinking to her knees. Her arm still uselessly pressed through the bars, trying to reach her wolf. But the strength in her body faded as she hiccupped.No, no, no, it wasn’t supposed to…he wasn’t supposed to be…we were…Melody let her hand fall to the earth as her visions swirled.

“Poor kiddo, guess he should have done as he was told. Unlike his obedient sister, who was always such a good girl. Little Giovanni tried to fight it. And when you go back on a deal, I couldn’t help what happened to him.”

Melody’s face screwed up at the center as her ruby eyes snapped up to the hag. “How…Dare…you!”

The Hag crouched in front of her with a twisted grin on her lips. Melody used the bars she couldn’t see but could feel to wrench her body up to her feet. The Hag followed her, looming just beyond where Melody’s hands could reach. Finally, she spoke, “If you want it back, come see me. The lady of the house knows how to set up a lunch with me. I’m always up for a good deal.”

Melody snarled, lunging an arm through the bars only to fall through the air. Her body smacked onto the kitchen table, her claws digging trenches into the wood.

Dahlia gasped, hands rushing to the werewolf’s aid. Melody panted for air as she was helped up and off the top of the table. Sebastian immediately cupped her cheeks, his masked face scanning over her with concern. Dahlia slid up behind him with Agatha and Kevin all watching her with worry. Carl boofed from under the table in discontent. As if to say, what’s going on up there?!

“What happened?” Sebastian breathed.

“The witch.” Melody broke like a faucet, spewing the words without control at max velocity. “She showed up at the fence. Carl ate something and when I caught it, I almost remembered why it was familiar. And then she just snatched my forehead. I was there, in that nightmare place. She found us in the woods. We were running from something and I just kept asking to go home. She told us we could if we gave her…”

And then it caught up with Melody. Her heart lurched, hands flying to her mouth.I gave her half of me…I let her keep me in her wicked hut in the terrible woods.Her stomach was in knots as she tried not to gag on her own tongue.

“Melody?” Dahlia breathed, stepping forward. “The witch?”

“The witch from the woods,” Melody confessed with a sob as the weight of her decision tried to tear her apart. “I sold my wolf to go home. But my brother. He did something wrong. I think he tried to fight her on it. I think he didn’t do as she told, cause when I came out the other side, he was mangled and torn to ribbons. That’s why I’m like this. That’s…”

She gulped hard.Come see me.Melody’s eyes snapped up from her shaking hands to Dahlia. “We need to go see her.”

“What!” Everyone in the room barked.

“She said if I wanted it back to come make a deal with her,” Melody rushed to climb off the table. Dahlia stopped her. Firm hands held her against the wood, slate gray eyes flashing yellow.

“Absolutely not.”

“But she hasmy wolf!She said she’d give them back. That you could take me to her!” Melody ripped her hands out from Dahlia’s. The blond-haired elf glanced down to the spot where Melody freed herself without an ounce of effort. Those suspicious eyes crawled back up to Melody’s face. But the werewolf wasn’t there for questioning. She was there for answers. “Dahlia, I need to go see her. Now!”

“I will do no such thing,” Dahlia snapped.

“Why not!” Melody roared, pushing onto her feet despite protests. Carl was already at her side. He nuzzled his big head into her hand. She scratched him absent mindedly.

“Because making deals with eldritch gods never ends well. You should know that best of all. I know it! The whole reason I am this!” Dahlia motioned at herself before jabbing a finger in Melody’s face, “is because of those horrors in the Nightmare Realm. And I’m not about to let you waltz into a trap.”

“And why do you get to decide that for me?” Melody’s hackles rose as she met Dahlia toe to toe.

“Because it’s my realm!” Dahlia pushed up on her toes an inch to tower over Melody.

“And it’s my wolf!” Melody snapped back, pushing up on her own tippy toes to be eye to eye with Lady Rosemont. “You don’t get to decide what’s important enough to risk a deal—that’s a whole half of me that’s been trapped in that place! And I want it back! And I’m going to get it back, regardless of what she wants.”

“Which is exactly why you’re not going.” Dahlia smacked the butt of her palm against Melody’s forehead. The werewolf flinched, stumbling back a step as pain radiated through her skull. A third eye opened on Dahlia’s forehead, a sickly yellow orb that bore through Melody’s soul. “You are clearly not responsible enough to make deals if you can’t possibly conceive the consequences to your actions. You’ll play right into her hand, and I won’t allow you to be sucked into her games just because you have some perceived chance of happiness. You already did it once. Don’t be fucking stupid.”

Melody’s world froze as she stared at Dahlia with wide eyes. Red in the face, Dahlia straightened her dress with a sharp tug. Carl slid away from Melody as the wolf glanced at the others in the room. Sebastian sighed, “I agree with Dahlia. The chances of you actually getting your wolf back while playing games with the witch are slim to none, little one.”

---