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Kira snorted, making Mia laugh.

“So tell me,” Leona said, that sly look touching her smile. “Have you bumped uglies with your big, bad warlord yet?”

Color flooded Mia’s cheeks and she sputtered. “What? No! He barely touches me.”

“Makes you wonder what he’s up to, doesn’t it?”

Kira shot Leona an exasperated look. “Stop teasing her. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“Ah, yes. The dissent.”

Mia glanced between them. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ll find out,” Leona replied. “In fact, let’s get it over with so we can get down to work.”

She stood abruptly and left the office.

Mia glanced at Kira. “What’s going on?”

“This is something you need to see for yourself.”

They trailed after Leona, who had breezed partway into the central open workspace and stopped with both hands planted on her hips. “Listen up, people. Who’s brave enough to talk shit about humans to my face?”

Mia sucked in a breath the wrong way and nearly choked on it. “Oh, my God. That is not the way to handle this,” she muttered.

“You know Leona,” Kira whispered. “Bull in a china shop.”

“Only when she has to be.”

Every Xeruvian in the place had frozen, their eyes turned on the three humans. Jyrak stood to one side, her arms crossed over her chest, next to a male Mia vaguely remembered meeting the day before. The other Xeruvian women had clustered together in little clumps, two here, three there, while the remaining men were scattered around the room among the human women who’d dropped by that day. Mia studied them all carefully, her heart sinking. So many of the people she’d interacted with had been kind, if not openly welcoming. Her gaze flicked to Jyrak again. The Xeruvian was staring dispassionately at a cluster of three females standing at a workboard, their expressions ranging from sullen to catty.

God, she hated workplace politics.

One of those women stepped forward, her lips twitching into a humorless smile. “Do you think you can best one of us, human?”

Leona bared her teeth in an equally vicious smile. “Why don’t you come over here and find out?”

Kira breathed out what could’ve been a curse or a prayer. “We’re going to get dragged into this.”

“No, we’re not,” Mia said fiercely. She stepped forward, channeled her inner Zoran, and glared at the Xeruvian. “What’s your name, female?”

The Xeruvian raked her gaze up and down Mia’s body and sneered. “What business is it of yours?”

“Answer your lady,” Jyrak said, her voice so cold, it could cut steel.

“She is notmylady,” the Xeruvian said. “I refuse to acknowledge this usurper as such.”

“Then you will no longer be welcome here,” Alara said.

Mia’s gaze whipped to the entrance. Zoran’s mother filled the doorway, her green eyes hard as emeralds.

“Each of you is here by the grace of my son,” Alara continued, her gaze piercing each Xeruvian in turn. “And by extension, the sufferance of his mate. You will accord her the respect befitting her status.”

Mia waited for anor elseand got a boat load of silence.

Most of the Xeruvians watched the interplay as Jyrak did, dispassionately. A few, mostly women, had anger in their eyes. It didn’t mean anything. The anger could come from anywhere; the dispassion could conceal distrust or even hatred.

But Mia silently marked those faces that held the most emotion, knowing they’d be the likeliest sources of trouble.