91. Cherish

I found Violent having a little cry in one of the inns. She was being comforted by Martha, stroking her brown hair softly. I had missed her travelling down the other line of dancers, so caught up in watching Penelope’s bond with Kharkov. so many young woman around her had found a mate and she had felt useless.

“Has the Moon Goddess just decided I am too fucked up to deserve a mate?” Violet sobbed into Martha’s lap, the mint green darkening with damp patches of tears.

“Hush dear there was a whole line of men you did not dance with tonight.”

“I don’t know why I got my hopes up. I stayed away from that line because some of the men there were ones who used to visit the hellhole we were caged in.”

I let out a soft gasp at the realisation. Maybe I did have rose-tinted glasses regarding mate-bonds and love. Perhaps being endlessly bound to another soul for eternity is not the happy experience I have known so far. There is always the chance one's mate could be a poor character, a brute or