Chapter 48: Don’t you know how much I love you?

Keanna made her way to the table full of wives and sat down near Akari, who seemed to be irritated about something. Beatrice more than made up Akari's bad mood, though, with a story about her youngest sons’ encocomilarge calunter with what they thought was a shaggy monkey that someone had brought into the palace, but who turned out to be a visiting minister of finance from the Kingdom of Cylor. The king’s most humble apologies didn’t mollify him in the least and he had left earlier in a huff. Keanna laughed uproariously at the story, and Beatrice had turned to smile and wink at her. Suddenly the mystery of the wink that Nikolai had given to Akari was fully explained.

When the food was served, Beatrice took one look at it and raised her glass to her lips. She obviously didn’t like what had been served, and not only that, she began to join Akari in shooting dirty looks over at the other table. There the Werewolves seemed to be having quite a time among themselves, laughing loudly and