“Ferrymen do not exist on this plane. Reapers do not exist on this plane,” Wilder stated.
My heart dropped. “If Sebbie remembers… Does that mean he’ll have to carry out his jobs and won’t exist on this plane anymore?”
“I don’t know, Corbin,” Wilder said gently.
Jude came over and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I’ll go with him,” I said without thought. “If he has to exist forever at his river, I’ll be there with him. I’ll be his personal hellhound, ready to do his bidding.”
Wilder sighed. “Yes, I know. Which is why I hope I’m wrong. We would miss you both too much.”
Jude, Wilder, and I all stood in silence for a moment, but before long the front door was opening, and I heard the rest of the pack shuffling in.
I would worry about what would happen later. As sad as it was to think of leaving my pack, my place was with Sebbie. But for now, we could all enjoy a meal together.
I was resting my arm on the back of Sebbie’s chair, watching as he animatedly talked with Q about lemon as a cake filling. Wilder and Josh were cuddled up together across the table, Toby was jotting down plot ideas, and Aiden was occasionallycommenting on the lemon debate and casually petting Fluffy, since apparently Atlas wasn’t in a chatty mood today and had shown up in his wolf-dog form.
Liam, Thea, and Dexter were all on clean-up duty, bustling about and clearing the table. If Jude’s sheriff were here, the pack would truly be complete. Jude was here, although he’d snuck off a few minutes ago. I wondered if he was sad that his mate wasn’t here, and I wondered again what he was waiting for to claim the sheriff.
Although I supposed I knew better than anyone that everything had a time and a place.
As if my thought had conjured him, I heard the sheriff’s car coming up the driveway. I wasn’t the only one, because all of the hellhounds had a moment where we looked toward the front of the house. A brief pulse of a siren interrupted everyone, and even the human packmates realized what was happening.
“Jude, what did you do?” Josh asked, and he had the tone of voice of someone who was dealing with a rambunctious three-year-old. Which was actually a rather apt description of Jude sometimes.
Jude smiled, threw the dish towel in his hand over his shoulder, and headed toward the door. Of course, we all followed.
Sebbie leaned into me as we walked to the front door, asking, “Why doesn’t he just ask the sheriff out?”
“Some mysteries of the universe are beyond even my grasp,” I answered, making Sebbie snort in amusement.
We all piled out the front door just as the sheriff was getting out of his car. He looked like he was pissed off, but I could also sense the exasperation and perhaps a tiny bit of amusement underneath his facade of anger.
“Walrus! We just finished lunch, but I saved a plate for you!” Jude called out, smiling like the sheriff had been expected allalong. “Come on in!” he added, shooing us all back into the house and waving the sheriff forward. He didn’t wait for Paul to follow before he went back inside.
The sheriff sighed, but he followed us inside. If he wanted to talk, I supposed he didn’t have much of a choice.
Once we were all back in the living room, we took our seats, trying to look casual. The sheriff looked more resigned than mad, and Jude looked positively giddy. He brought a plate over and handed it to the sheriff. It had two sandwiches, some chips, and pasta salad.
The sheriff stared at it like it might contain a bomb, then he looked back up at Jude.
“It’s turkey—your favorite,” Jude smiled.
“Jude,” the sheriff sighed out, putting his plate on the counter.
Jude’s smile only got bigger. All of us were waiting to see what outrageous thing Jude had done to get the sheriff to come here, because it was definitely far too simple for him to just ask the man to come to lunch.
“Jude, you cannot call the precinct and tell them you’re torturing someone in the basement and that you need the sheriff to come arrest you,” Sheriff Paul grumbled. “That’s filing a false police report, and it’s illegal.”
“Oh, but Iwastorturing someone in the basement,” Jude answered gleefully.
Josh groaned from his chair, Dexter snorted in amusement, and I could practically hear Q roll his eyes.
“Jude,” the sheriff huffed.
“Don’t worry, I disposed of the body and all evidence. But feel free to arrest me anyway,” Jude said, holding his hands out in front of him like he was ready to get cuffed.
“Lord save me from idiots,” the sheriff mumbled under his breath. He didn’t realize half the room had exceptional hearing, and we all tried not to chuckle. It didn’t even faze Jude, though.
