Greetings, one and all! I have returned to bring you the next installment in the Horny Monsters series! That's right, Book 7 begins now!
New reader? Hey, welcome! I write my stories as chapters in what has become a lengthy series about the Radley house. Lots of monstergirls, lots of sex, and a shit-ton of plot and lore. If you've skipped the first six books and the 2.1 spinoffs and don't care, then this is the place to begin!
Returning reader? Welcome back! I am so excited to start this story with you! Some of the plot elements I have spent years setting forth will finally be allowed to weave together, so if you haven't touched Last of Her Kind of Dead and Horny yet, now would be a great time to check them out!
Going into the new year, I will likely be alternating D&H 2 with HFHM 7. Some plot elements from D&H 2 will enrich the HFHM 7 experience is all, so feel free to ignore Lily's series and hope she doesn't suck your soul out through your anus for doing so (but some of you are into that, no judgment). Anyway, this is just a reminder that I schedule posts and you can see them in my bio, so check there if you are trying to figure out life plans and all that.
I couldn't have come this far without my readership on Lit. Your likes, comments, and feedback (which I keep finding stuffed in my spam folder, sorry!) have helped get me to where I am today. For that, I will be eternally grateful to all of you. I hope that I've grown as a writer and truly provided the reading experience that you deserve.
By the way, this story takes place 1.5 years after Book 6, so be prepared to meet a couple of new characters :)
Okay, that's enough gushing from me. It's time for
A Family Outing
Mike knelt at the bottom of a slide, his hands on the cool metal. The hot summer day had been chased off by a sudden thunderstorm summoned up by the dragon Quetzalli, who sat in human form on a nearby swing. The playground was empty now, save for Mike's family. At the top of a slide, a young boy stood nervously eyeing the slide.
"C'mon, Callisto, you can do it. It's actually a lot of fun."
His son shook his head nervously, causing lanky hair to blow across his face in the breeze. "It's too scary, and I'm too high!"
"C'mon, you should try it." Mike patted the slide again. "That bracelet Ratu gave you will only last another hour, and then you'll have to wait for her to recharge it."
Callisto held up his wrist to look at the bracelet. What appeared to be a simple slap bracelet was in fact a magical device that the naga Ratu had crafted to grant Callisto a human form. The boy was actually a centaur, and had spent the past year espousing interest in learning how to walk on two legs and spend time in the human realm. Over a month had been spent planning this outing, and other than climbing to the top of the playground and freezing in place by the slide, the centaur had done nothing else.
In truth, the bracelet wouldn't have worked if Callisto hadn't accidentally shapeshifted into a human close to his first birthday. It had scared the shit out of Zel, his mother, and the rest of the herd. It wasn't something he could control, and Ratu thought it was leftover magic from the time Mike had knocked Zel up while she was in a human-esque form. Like his mother at the time, Callisto had human-esque legs with horsehair and toes that were pinched together like hooves, which was why he wore long pants even though it was summer. His shoes were custom enchanted to look like sneakers. The tail that had been pulled through the back of his pants was a dead giveaway that he wasn't quite human.
His half-sister Grace emerged from beneath the slide, her hair dangling as she clung to the bottom of the metallic surface with eight slender spider legs. She scowled at her brother and tapped on the metal sheet hard enough that she put a divot in it.
"Even your sister wants you to go." Mike looked at his daughter. "And you need to fix your skirt if you're going to climb upside down like that, young lady."
Grace bared her fangs at her father and slunk back into the shadows beneath the slide. He was happy to see that she used the velcro on the front of her skirt to reattach it to her legs. Just because she was an Arachne didn't mean she could go around showing everyone her underwear. Her aunt Eulalie was already talking about making her wear shorts all the time.
If anyone was in the park, the sight of Grace would have terrified them to the core. Her lower body was that of an orb weaver spider, but she was still small enough that if she crouched down, she could pull her skirt over her legs and pass for a normal child in public as long as she kept her additional eyes hidden behind her bangs. They had brought her to the park in a wagon through a magical tree portal, right after Quetzalli had gone ahead and summoned enough thunder and lightning to scare away anyone lingering around. Abella and Mike had scoured the area to make sure it was empty first, and then a perimeter of magical wards had been established around the entire park. If anybody wandered in, Mike would know.
Taking them beyond the protective boundaries of his magical home was a huge risk. After much discussion amongst the adults, it had been Eulalie who was their biggest advocate. As an Arachne who had spent her entire life locked away from the outside world, she was worried the disconnect would create a line of "us vs. them" in the children. The last thing Mike wanted was for his kids to fear the world he had grown up in.
"Try sitting on your butt first." Mike patted his own behind for his son's benefit. "You know, that gross thing under your tail."
This made Callisto smirk. Even though he was a centaur and they pooped openly, there was something about human butts that often put the kid in hysterics. It must be a universal thing.
Callisto carefully sat near the edge of the slide, his fingers gripping the edges tightly. Tentatively, he slid forward, his fingers squeaking against the metal. Once his whole body was on the slide, Grace popped over the side and bit her brother's fingers, causing him to release his grip on the sides and slide down screaming.
Mike caught Callisto at the bottom just as Grace disappeared back under the slide. "You did it!" he cried with excitement, lifting his son up and hugging him tight. Callisto was stuck somewhere between joy and terror, so Mike set him on the ground and held up his hands. "High five, bud!"
The centaur gave him a high-five, then looked down at his fingers. There were little red marks, but no punctures. Mike put his hands on his hips and walked over to where the slide and playground connected.
"Gracelynn Penelope Radley, what have I said about biting your brother?" He peered under the slide and saw that she was crouched upside down beneath it. The Arachne hissed at him from her hiding spot.
Mike tilted his head to one side and frowned at her, unafraid. Eventually, Grace pouted and held her arms out for him. He helped her down, and she moved over next to her brother and butted her head gently against his chest.
Callisto hugged his sister. The two of them were close, despite their differences. Lily often referred to them as the Leg Brigade. The two of them were inseparable whenever Callisto came to the house for a visit, and it wasn't uncommon to hear Callisto's hooves on the hardwood floors as they chased each other around. Tink had even made him special rubber hoof covers to keep him from slipping and damaging the hardwood floors.
Mike walked with both of them over to the teeter-totter and showed them how it worked. Callisto asked a bunch of questions, but Grace remained silent. At eighteen months, she was non-verbal, which wasn't that uncommon among Arachne. Her aunt Eulalie didn't have a whole lot of information to go off on, but apparently Grace's mother, Velvet, had been the same way as a child.
As Callisto and Grace bounced up and down on the teeter-totter, Mike smiled. Shortly after Grace's hatching, Callisto had become insanely curious about his little sister. However, his strange fear of Mike had prevented the two of them from playing together. It had become clear to Mike that Callisto saw the world in a very different way than anyone else did, one that nobody quite understood yet. Play dates between siblings slowly turned into special father-son moments that helped bridge the gap between them. Mike had asked Callisto once about why he used to be scared, and the boy had simply shrugged and said it didn't matter, because he didn't remember why anymore.
The trees rustled above Mike, though there wasn't any wind. He tilted his head to listen. Trees didn't often use words, but the ones in the park had grown up around humans and could sometimes speak in stilted sentences rather than stray thoughts and feelings. Words and images entered his mind and his brain worked overtime to decipher them.
Someone had entered the park. There were at least three people, and they were headed directly for the playground. Mike frowned, realizing that whoever was coming had bypassed the protective wards he had helped place. That meant trouble.
"We have company." He frowned at his children, then looked at Quetzalli. The dragon was already sliding an enchanted napkin ring over her horn, which rendered it invisible. Abella emerged from the trees, her wings wrapped around her body like a cloak. She cocked her head to one side.
"I can hear four of them," she said. "What do you want me to do?"
"If they bypassed the wards, they know we're here already." He bit his lip and looked at the kids. "Take Grace."
"Come, hatchling." Abella opened up her wings, revealing the stone body beneath. Grace was unnervingly quick, crossing the playground in seconds and leaping onto Abella's body. She wrapped her wings around the child and moved back into the trees, becoming motionless. To a casual observer, she was nothing more than a statue, the Arachne hidden from view.
Callisto looked up at Mike.
"Where do I hide?" he whispered, tucking his tail down the back of his pants.
"Nowhere." Mike knelt and ruffled his son's hair. "You're safe here with me. If something happens, you know what to do."
