Chapter 50

In a very real way, they were challenging the status quo. This arena had always been the province of Werewolf male warriors. Females and wives or even love slaves could come—but only as spectators during the games, and they never set foot on the field. Not since the old days when captives were allowed to fight for their lives and humans had a place on the field. If they failed back then, as they most always did, because of exhaustion, injury and unfamiliarity with the weapons, they were either killed or taken as love slaves.

Actual wives, with their status as cherished family members, were never allowed to be on the field. It simply wasn’t done.

Since they’d arrived, Akari had felt the enormous weight of disapproval being aimed their way as an almost physical thing. Had Akari and Beatrice not been royal consorts, Akari thought they might well have been summarily ordered off the field and carried out bodily if they refused to go. She glanced over at Nikolai again and caught him stand