Leroy picked up his blue counters. “Let’s go through the outside bets. What’s this?”
He placed a chip on the red diamond.
“Red or black bet. Pays one for one.”
The Luther moved the chip to even.
“Even or odd bet. Also one for one.”
We moved through Dozens, Columns, then High and Low.
Leroy smiled. “You’re a maths brain. Ideal, or this wouldn’t have worked out. Roulette is one of the harder tables to calculate payouts.”
I twisted the roulette wheel absently. “Throwing me in the deep end?”
“Everyone has their preferred table.”
I inhaled the slight decay of his oak scent. “Uh-huh. Is this the one no one wanted?”
The alpha grimaced. “It was Daniil’s spot.”
“I see.”
“If there was another table, it would be yours. But game training takes time. It didn’t make sense to pull others away from what they have experience with.”
I arched a brow. “Really, it’s fine.”
He shot me a quick smile and moved through the inside bets, sometimes placing multiple chips down. Even if some of the names eluded me, the trick to using the centre column to make calculations proved handy.
“There’s one other bet you may see from time to time.” He placed counters in a weaving line across the roulette table. “This is a snake bet. The waving shape of the line is the clue. This pays at two to one.”
How did that work in with my centre column though? I counted the blue chips. There were twelve of them. My frown eased. Twelve pays two.
Alright, I could do this. Calculating the various payouts with actual bet amounts would be another challenge, but with practice, I’d be fine.
“Got it,” I said.
“Let’s grab a drink before I leave for Sandstone.”
The first grid match since the Stabattse was tonight. I’d felt sick with nerves all day. Somehow, they were worse than when I was head steward.
As soon as Rhona unleashed a counter strategy for the pack’s ropes, Sascha would know what I’d done. Did he really mean what he said a few days ago about understanding my position?
Yet the thought of the tribe losing tonight was horrible.
“Cider?” Leroy asked.
“Pear, please.”
He slid it across the bar, and I twisted off the top.
“Right, so job details. There are two shifts. Midday until seven. And seven until two. You’ll be seven until two because Sascha wants you here when he is.” He winked and took a sip of his beer.
Leroy had the player persona going on, but his level-headedness was unexpected for an alpha—the hot-headed brunette woman from dinner was the prime example of what I expected of their status.
“You’ll get two sets of the work uniform. The outfit is on the shorter side, but I swear our female pack members designed them. The temperature in the casino can get uncomfortable for our kind.”
I crooked a smile. “I’m Thong Girl. Simple things like lack of clothing in public places doesn’t scare me.”
“Of course. My apologies, Thong Girl. Now, while training with a mentor, you’ll begin at seventeen dollars an hour.”
Seventeen dollars multiplied by twenty-one hours, minus tax. Right. Not great. I’d earned more playing saxophone. “What about when I’m working without a mentor?”
“Twenty. During quarterly reviews, your table management will be assessed. Any pay rises will be decided then with a cap of twenty-five dollars per hour.”
“Sascha didn’t say how much the payment to the pack would be.”
Leroy pressed his lips together. “The pack decided that one hundred and fifty dollars a week would suffice.”
On the head steward salary, I could have paid off the remaining five-thousand-dollars of Ragna’s debt within two months. It would take over a year to be rid of the debt at seventeen bucks an hour. Slightly less with a pay rise.
“Is there a problem with one hundred and fifty?” I asked.
“Sascha believes it’s too steep and that some pack members are penalising you for your past.”
I’d say that was plausible. “And for Daniil’s death? He must have family.”
“Parents. Two siblings. Most can admit you were protecting yourself. There’s no denying he was much loved, but after hearing your marshal’s explanation, most who mourn him feel just as much confusion as they feel grief.”
“Grief is hard enough without betrayal creeping in.”
“Your mother?”
“And Herc. But mainly Ragna, yes.”
Leroy set his beer down. “As back room manager and Sascha’s lead alpha, I need to ask. Will your mother’s gambling past be an issue?”
“It won’t be an issue.” My voice was firm.
He toyed with his bottle. “It just seems cruel to put you in the casino. I’m sure Mandy didn’t mean to suggest—"
“Mandy absolutely meant to challenge me.”
“It’s not her job to challenge you.” Leroy growled low. “It’s her duty to obey Sascha’s orders and give sound advice when asked.”
I sipped the over-sweet cider. “That sounds a lot like something an alpha might say.”
“An alpha who knows his weakness, yes.”
“So what? You give over control to Sascha to remove your alpha inclination to take control?”
He smirked “You’re observant. I’ll give you that. I saw the way you figured out the eating hierarchy.”
I found the varying statuses fascinating. Every wolf had a different personality, but statuses displayed consistent strengths and weaknesses. Nothing shook Grim the gamma, but he contributed least in meetings between the pack and tribe. Mandy the delta came across as mostly easy-going but had a failure complex or possibly a massive, ambitious streak. Hairy the beta was level-headed and empathetic, but that made him want to please everyone and he could overthink things. Leroy’s smiles came easy, but I bet he struggled with the control aspect of alpha status a lot.
“Not sure I made many friends that night,” I murmured.
He finished his beer and disposed of the empty. “You’d be surprised how many Luthers respect power traditions. Some take issue because of what you were, but the rest saw you assert dominance over one of the strongest female wolves in our pack. Easily. That holds sway with them. Sascha is very proud.”
I’d caught that.
By refusing to eat after others, I’d taken a step toward the pack. I wanted to take more steps. Without delay.
Leroy swept away my empty. “I’ll meet you late tomorrow morning for the last training modules. Sorry about the rush on this. We usually spread training over a couple of weeks.”
The quicker I started work, the better. I wanted a distraction so badly.
Leroy consulted his watch. “Shit, I need to get going. The run to Sandstone takes a while.”
“I bet.” Bile surged up my throat as I followed him to the door.
He glanced at me after locking up. “Will it be strange not to be there?”
Strange? No. Unbearable? Yes.
The only thing worse would be to watch from the sidelines.
“It’s… an adjustment.” I borrowed Sascha’s word.