Page 20 of Wolf Roulette

I lifted a shoulder. “The casino is fine. When do I start?”

4

“One pays thirty-five, two pays seventeen, three pays eleven, four pays eight, and twelve pays two,” I recited to Leroy, gazing at the roulette table.

The Denswouldn’t open for business until tomorrow night, but my training started three days ago.

Leroy placed a blue chip at the junction of zero, one, and the first twelve box. “If I put this here?”

“Five pays six.”

“Good.”

I’d always forced my mind away from gambling of any kind, but I doubt anyone could grow up without seeing a roulette table. Consider me surprised that this seemingly random assortment on red and black, odd and even numbers could make sense, but it was starting to.

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 toeven.

“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 wereworsethan 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?

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