Page 70 of How to Seduce a Slender

“What if I said I wanted you to be…would you be cold?”

“No,” he breathed, his heart skipping a beat. “Are you granting me permission? Or simply looking for comfort? If you want comfort, I can change but if you’re granting me permission, sweet girl, you know how you’ll wake up.”

She chuckled sleepily from the pillows, “I’m counting on it.”

The clothes fell off his body in a cloud of static. Smith scrambled under the duvet to find his werewolf with her back to him already. And there was a distinct lack of a silk slip than there was when heput her in this bed.When did she remove it? He didn’t have time to replay his calculated movements. Somehow she’d slithered out of the fabric covering her and as he slid up behind her, her skin broke out in those goose bumps again.Dragons above.Smith wrapped an arm around her soft belly, tugging her back against his torso. She’d probably regret it in the morning.Spending a whole night touching me like this.But there was a part of him that hoped she didn’t.Maybe she’ll always want to sleep naked in my arms.

It was too cold in the house to consider that anything but a fantasy. But what was the harm in indulging? Not as his smokey tendrils pulled two heavy throw blankets from the wardrobe and draped them over the duvet.Just in case.

His other hand snaked through the space between her neck and the pillow, cupping her throat at first. Her dreamy sigh told him everything he wanted to know. Spreading his lips across her jugular, he could taste her mind. Just seconds away from sleep. It lured him in. She was his flame, his moth wings beating as fast as they could to catch her. Smith followed her into that hazy gray eagerly. As his teeth sunk into her neck, she gasped.

And that gasp made his eyes open in the Endless Woods.

Melody stood just in front of him, her back pressed into his stomach. Her heart thundered in his ears, bouncing off each tree. Something was different but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Not as Melody stepped away from him. Smith hastily added a visage of a nightgown over her body.Right, she’s sleeping naked you bumbling buffoon.As much as he hated to clothe her after he’d finally gotten her flesh against his…they were never alone in the Endless Woods.

“Welcome home, Servonix,” a gassy wheeze filled the air in front of them. Melody stopped in her slow steps to stare up into the trees. Lumbering through the haze, slowly shrinking to their height, were two Slender. His mentors. “It’s been forever.”

“Mestophemuse, Havroc.” The names flew out of his mouth as they used to, long, long ago.

His mentors were lanky, with elongated faces that no longer seemed vaguely human. They were stretched by time and their feasts. Permanent tendrils of smokey black whipped around their backs for a moment before dragging across the ground. Mestophemuse sported two massive horns out the back of their shoulder blades that curled around to their collar. Their favorite foods were minotaurs, fiends, anything a challenge. They played the long con.

Havroc, however, spoke up, “Servonix, we heard you’d been seen around. We hoped to see you wandering the woods once more. And look, you’ve brought a snack.”

Havroc sported a mouth at the center of their chest that opened and closed when they spoke. Their favorite meals were mimics.

“This is my sweet girl,” Smith motioned at Melody before tugging her by the shoulder back to his side. “How are you two?”

“Still kicking around in these forsaken woods,” Mestophemuse wheezed, a puff of smoke coming from their mouth. “Just ate a dragon.”

“A dragon?” Melody squeaked.

“Red delicious,” Mestophemuse preened, their ego clearly stroked.

“No, dear, that’s an apple,” Havroc corrected, their long purple tongue licking around the massive teeth before it shut.

“Dragons are like apples, one a millennia keeps the Lich’s at bay, or whatever the youth are saying these days.” Mestophemuse waved their hand flippantly at their partner. “How is your Lich, Servonix? Are you still indebted to one?”

“I work for him.” Smith couldn’t roll his eyes because he didn’t have any, especially not here. But if he could, he would have. “He is well.”

“Good,” they both purred with wicked delight that made him suspicious. His mentors were chaotic neutral at best. They ate who and what they pleased.

Smith crouched to whisper in Melody’s ear, “Will you give me a moment?”

“Are these your parents?” She eyed him before looking at the Slender across from Smith.

“Sort of, they’re mentors. If you walk straight this way, we’ll be right behind you. Remember the rule?”

“Don’t look back,” she snorted, shaking her head. “Keep your Slender secrets…remember, you still owe me a fact about yourself andthis,” she motioned at the air around them vaguely, “doesn’t count.”

Smith chuckled, turning her to face a different direction and patting her on the butt. “I know, sweet girl.”

Melody huffed, tossing her hair over her shoulder, but continued to walk anyway. Smith let her get far enough away his conversation wouldn’t reach her ears, but he could rip her back to him at any moment if needed. Then he looked at his mentors, “I’ve changed.”

“I would say that’s an understatement,” Mestophemuse wheezed out another laugh, smoke pluming from their mouth. They cleared their throats, pounding their fist to their chest quickly before the smoke stopped. “Sorry, dragons are delightfully filling but they also cause indigestion.”

“You are what you eat,” Havroc and Smith chuckled at the same time. There was a special warmth between them as the three crept after the werewolf in the Endless Woods.

“Face value aside, I’ve begun desiring things. Her. I’ve become less driven by hunger and more by lust…” He trailed off as he studied his werewolf as she tenderly stepped over a fallen log.

---