28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Gio

S o much for my good luck charm. I lost a few grand, made a few grand, lost a few more and made a few more. The casino was a bust. Literally the only money I'm up from my venture out of the restaurant is the quarter I found before I left the mall.

Walking back there now, I flip the quarter and catch it, keeping my hand over it.

Heads I dump the flyers and tell the guys I handed them out.

Tails I confess I wasted a few hours at a casino.

I lift my hand. Heads. Fate gives me the answer I want to hear.

Too bad I can't listen. I don't like lying to my pack.

The occasional white lie, sure.

Omitting something, sometimes.

Outright lying to their faces?

Flat no.

And what I did this afternoon, sending Jack home and telling him I was taking over doesn't count. My intentions were to make money to help boost our advertising efforts. I was doing what my Beta was doing, on a different level.

Luck just wasn't on my side tonight.

My instincts were sharp, but the cards were bad.

I toss the coin again, flipping it without making a bet.

Heads. A couple more flips and I get tails.

There has to be a reason I found this quarter today.

It must mean something .

Getting to the mall, I stop flipping to open the door and go inside.

The candy store is closed now, and the mall is a lot less crowded.

It's bearable to be here, and Jack's gig isn't on for a couple of hours yet, so I take my time picking up his messenger bag full of flyers and then I go up to the food court level to grab a coffee.

I need a few minutes alone before I go home and admit what I spent the last few hours doing.

I had good intentions, but that doesn't matter.

Enzo thinks I have a problem.

Maybe I do.

I don't know anymore.

I've spent so long relying on my instincts that gambling feels like the only thing I'm truly good at.

I thought I'd gotten everything right with the restaurant, but clearly all that meticulous planning I did while we were still living in Emerald Grove was for nothing. I've already spent hours going back over each element, trying to figure out where I went wrong.

I couldn't work it out.

All I know is, I failed my pack.

It doesn't feel good.

I'm falling back on the one thing I know to try and get us out of this mess, but I know Enzo won't understand that. He has some very black and white views of the world.

To me, the world has always been painted in a million different shades of gray.

Nobody is all good, or all bad.

Everyone has flaws.

I get my coffee and go straight for a table in the corner of the seating area, away from the small groups of other people dotted around.

I'm not sure how long I sit at that table, but I barely touch the coffee and when I eventually realize the cup is still mostly full, it's already stone-cold.

Sighing, I get to my feet.

It's probably time to go home.

I pick up the cup and flip the coin in my other hand absently, somehow surprised when it flies out of my fingers and rolls across the floor of the seating area.

Chasing it, I slow to a halt when I see it rolling to a stop at the feet of someone who's wearing pink jeans.

That weird feeling I got when I found the coin doubles.

The woman in the bright jeans bends down and picks the quarter up. "Huh."

She's probably a couple inches over five feet tall, and she has wavy, golden-blonde hair.

I know the instant our eyes meet that she's mine.

Fated mates are rare, and I've already found two of them.

This one makes three.

I guess my luck tonight isn't so bad after all.

"You know, I lost one of these today," she tells me, as she holds the quarter out to me.

"I found that one in the candy store this afternoon."

Her bright eyes widen. "The candy store? That's where I got the change so I could go up to the arcade with my sister."

"Then this quarter is yours. I'm glad it found a way back to you."

She gives me a bemused smile. "Do I know you, or something?"

She feels something for me, like I do for her, but she's a Beta so she's going to write that feeling off as simple attraction. It's up to me to do something to make sure we connect.

She's mine to protect and care for from now on, even if she doesn't know it.

"I don't think so, but we can fix that. I'm Gio."

"I'm Beth," she tells me. "And I should probably be going."

"You've got somewhere you need to be?" I ask.

"Um …" Her cheeks flush pink. "Well …"

"I ask, because I was about to get some change and head up to the arcade, if you wanted to join me?"

She blinks. "Oh. That … sounds like fun."

I smile. "Great. Give me a second. I just need to get some change."

She nods, and when I glance back, I see she's looking my way.

I have no idea what my pack are going to make of this, but if she's fated for me, the chances are she's fated to them, too.

All of us belong to her and with her.

I have a feeling this lucky find is going to balance out what I spent today doing.

Enzo can't stay mad at me if I bring us home a new true mate.