The current King of Eks Corp knew that she was running out of time when she heard about the Dragon's duels. She didn't share Brendan's worries over Ericka's survival. She was a dragon.
Having the opposition suddenly begin dying off would most likely cause most of the corporate heads to rejoice. The expectation made the head of the corporate heads cringe and feel like she was a failure.
She had been trying so hard to come up with a plan that wouldn't result in more deaths, but she obviously wasn't fast enough. Not good enough. Not efficient enough. The only thing that stopped her from thinking that Brendan could have done better if he had held the position he had been meant to inherit was that he didn't seem to see anything wrong with the tactic itself.
This was a struggle to write and probably doesn't convey the stomach dropping anxiety I picture Rafaela suffering well enough...