“I may need to leave,” Violet told Dorcas. “This thing with Treffon…if he’s not my true mate, I can’t stay.” She bit her lip. “Is Fife your true mate?”
“Fife? Oh, good heavens, no. He’s a lot of fun, I enjoy his company, but my late husband was my other half.” Dorcas stood up with a sigh. “If you’re going, I’m going.”
Violet called Madok on her comm. “I have an urgent question for you,” she said. “Can you meet me out by the landing pad?”
She already had an idea what he was going to tell her, and if she was right, she needed to leave at once.
The Eeplings followed her and Dorcas, waving their little wooden sticks around and eeping all the way.
Madok strode up to her, his face blank and expressionless.
“I’m really sorry to bother you at a time like this,” she said to him.
“A time like what?” He raised an eyebrow.
He was just like his late brother, Treffon’s father, she thought. Brutally hard-hearted, even when it came to his family.
She forged ahead. “I have a really important question to ask you. I’ve been told that you can always tell when a pair are true mates. Am I Treffon’s true mate, or not? Because if not, I want to leave now. I won’t have the strength to say goodbye to him.”
Madok looked at her, his face grim. “I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head.
