Page 80 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

“Wow, you must have really impressed her.”

He squeezed my fingers, nodding. “She saw something in me that nobody else did back then.”

“So, culinary school, and then…”

“And then, I worked my way up to executive chef at my first restaurant, got fired, and decided to start my own. The rest is history, and the fact that compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”

I sat with that, rolling it over in my mind. I liked that he was self-made, even if he had the longevity advantage over his human competition. But it didn’t change the fact that I felt inadequate in comparison. Out of place.

As if he could read the turn of my thoughts, he pressed a kiss to my lips. “I can always get more money, Stormy. But you? You’re one of a kind. A mystery, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life figuring you out.” He kissed my temple too, and pulled me close against his side.

The men of this pack truly didn’t care about the wealth they had. Maybe that meant I didn’t have to either. It was a freeing thought.

I decided to take him at face value and focus on learning more about his culture. The more I knew, the better, right? And it gave me something to focus on besides the huge chasm of differences between us. “So, the Moon Goddess?”

“Our deity. She created many creatures, or so the legends say. But wolves were always her favorites. She prized our loyalty, our deep desire for family. And so she blessed us with one perfect fated mate, the one who holds the other half of our soul, if you believe the old stories.”

It sounded too fantastic to believe, but a month ago, I wouldn’t have believed that wolf shifters were real, so who was I to question their beliefs? It wasn’t any stranger than going to mass with a priest like I had my entire childhood, I supposed.

“Do you? Believe the old stories?” I asked, finally looking up.

The warmth of his smile filled me from the inside out. “I do now.”

FORTY

Reed

Our overnight flight was uneventful, smooth, and easy over the Atlantic, with a late morning landing just outside Las Vegas after a quick fuel stop on the East Coast. My out-of-the-way entrance wouldn’t keep the news of our arrival from Carmine for long, but any advantage was one I would take.

He had a fearsome reputation, both in and out of the boardroom, and I didn’t intend to meet him on the back foot.

Fiona dozed on the way from the airport to the hotel, her head in my lap in the back seat of the car. I used the time to call Kane, fill him in on everything that had happened since we’d last spoken. By the time I’d finished pouring out all the awful details, I felt like a wrung-out sponge.

There was a beat of silence on the end of the line, and then Kane sighed with a weariness born of more than just the time difference. “I can tell you’re already halfway to taking all the onus for the failed mission, regardless of what I have to say about the matter?”

“As the lead, I?—”

“Gael is my second, is he not?”

It was my turn to be silent for a beat, staring out the window at the rolling desert landscape of red rock and sporadic cacti.

“Yes, Alpha.”

“And I think you did the best you could with a shitty situation, so there’s that. We didn’t expect it to be easy, though I am sorry that things went the way they did for Elodie. Marciana is going to be furious, and frankly, I can’t blame her.I’mfurious.” He exhaled heavily, as if trying to purge that fury, and I felt lower than low for dumping more problems on his lap than I had solutions.

That wasn’t our dynamic; I was a fixer, a solutions guy. Being in an Alpha’s top five was all about what you could do for the pack, what strengths you brought to the table for the greater good. Failure was not a common occurrence in my life, and it tasted bitter on my tongue now, despite his assurances that it wasn’t all on me.

That wasn’t how I operated. If I was involved, it was on me. Period. You didn’t reach my level of success in the business world by passing the buck, and I wasn’t about to start.

“I’ll make the deal with Carmine and get the stone, Alpha.”

“It makes me itch when you call me Alpha like that. Could you knock it off?”

I chuckled, enjoying his discomfort just a little. It broke the tension, at least.

“Sure thing… High Alpha.”

He growled, and I laughed harder, only holding back to avoid waking my dozing mate.

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