I smiled as Crow began pecking at him. He screamed for a long time, and I really did feel better when we were done. I supposed there was something to this whole therapy business after all.
My familywaswonderful; I hadn’t been lying. We all lived in houses or cabins on our combined property in Paradise Falls, and we had some humans in our pack, too. Dexter had moved in with Toby, his paranormal romance writing mate. Liam, our hacker hellhound, had his perfect snarky partner in Quinton. Aiden was paired up with Atlas, my most feral brother—I had to admit that had surprised me at first, but the two balanced each other. Wilder, my adopted father, had mated with Josh, a friend of Toby’s. They were both caretakers, both kind and loving, and they took care of each other along with all of us.
That left Jude and I in the big house, and Jude was… Well, he was Jude. One would think we would have the most in common, and in some ways we did. We had both been raised with humans, but Jude was quite a bit younger than me, and he was also quitethe joker. Although I think everyone knew the sheriff was more than likely his mate, they were doing some weird mating dance, which consisted of illegal acts on Jude’s part that the sheriff mostly chose to ignore, aside from the occasional moment in handcuffs.
I walked into the house we shared, and Jude called out a greeting, asking, “How’d it go with the not-so-good doctor?”
“Good. Crow enjoyed things.” Crow cawed in agreement.
Jude chuckled. He was at the stove fixing some dinner.
“No group dinner tonight?” I asked, slightly disappointed.
“Nope,” Jude said, giving me a grin. “You know, you could just go talk to Sebbie. I saw you both eyeing each other at the last dinner.”
I snorted. “Yeah, maybe you should go talk to your sheriff instead of trying to get arrested by him.”
“He likes it when I break the law. Handcuffs are our love language.”
I snorted again, and Jude left the subject alone, dishing us both plates. As annoying as Jude could sometimes be, with me he was calmer and quieter. I think he didn’t feel like he needed to keep up his jokester persona all the time when it was just the two of us. Yes, it was a big part of who he was, but there were depths to Jude, as well. Growing up as a hellhound in the human world left scars. The two of us just covered our scars up in different ways.
I hadn’t talked to Sebbie at the one dinner we’d both been at, despite being drawn to him. We’d stared at one another now and then, but too much had happened for it to progress. Despite the fact that he was Toby’s and Josh’s best friend, I’d only met him when he was kidnapped by a cult—a long story, but it all ended up fine.
I’d known right away when I’d seen him in the basement of the cult house that he was important to me, and that he wasprobably my mate. I’d also seen the shadow surrounding him, almost like a figure superimposed on top of him. I’d had the realization that Sebbie, the sweet, bubbly best friend that Toby and Josh always talked about, was a grim reaper. He was death. A collector of souls. And he had the capability to kill anyone and anything. Even immortals.
Even hellhounds.
Then I’d seen another image when I’d stared at Sebbie—the ferryman. Only, that didn’t make sense. The grim reaper collected souls, and the ferryman transported them to wherever they needed to go. They were, as far as I knew, two separate entities. Yet I’d seen both on the man.
Then everyone in that room had died, maybe—or maybe not—and then we’d been fine, and the immortal cult leader had been dead. All because of Sebbie. He’d saved us.
I wanted to see and talk to him. I wanted to ask questions. I wanted to find out everything about him.
There was only one major problem—I was pretty sure he had absolutely no idea who or what he was, and I was also pretty sure he didn’t remember a thing about what had happened in that basement room.
It looked like courting my mate might be a little more difficult than I’d expected.
Crow ate the pieces of corn I shared with her, and she ruffled her feathers at my thought. She was right. We were patient. We would watch over our mate and figure out the best way to court him. Our murder of crows would keep us informed even if we weren’t there. After all, they were already quite attached to the cute little reaper.
Chapter 2
Sebbie
I was finishing fillingout my last chart at the nurses’ station when Louise came over.
“You wanted to know if Mr. Russell woke up. He’s awake, but your shiftisover,” she said, then she marched off.
“I don’t know how you don’t tell her off,” Camilla said. “She’s such an ass to you. She’s just jealous that the patients like you way better than her.”
“Yeah, well, she has the bedside manner of a drill sergeant, so that’s not surprising. And there’s no point wasting energy being mad at her—she’s miserable enough,” I answered.
Camilla hummed in agreement, and we both finished up our charts. It had been a long shift—longer with charting—but I wanted to go visit Mr. Russell anyway. I had the next four days off, and I wasn’t sure if he would still be here when I was back on shift.
I took a walk down the hallway. I’d worked in a couple of hospitals, first as volunteer EMS, then for my nursing classes, then for actual pay. I had to say that this was definitely one of the nicer ones. Then again, the hospice wards tended to be a little nicer.
“Sebbie! How are you, my angelic nurse?” Mr. Russell called when I walked into his room.
I didn’t bother with the gloves and all that. I was off shift, and it wasn’t like germs mattered at this point. I walked in and sat beside his bed, and he reached his hand out for mine. I took it and smiled at him.
