Elena saw red the instant her gaze fell upon him.
"You robbed me of sleep last night," she seethed, "yet here I stand, sleep-deprived to preside over this solemn convocation."
"And you—how dare you doze during such an honorable gathering?"
"If I must remain vigilant, so shall you."
Against her will, vivid images flooded her mind—Ethan's household the previous evening.
"With that harem at his disposal, he'd never let his women remain idle after dark."
"That scoundrel must have indulged in every wicked pleasure," she thought, her nails biting into her palms.
A bitter jealousy coiled in her chest toward those unseen women.
She abruptly silenced a senior lecturer mid-discourse, her voice laced with contempt: "I've endured this tired rhetoric countless times in Lorethyll."
"These well-
