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We had been living together openly for two moons now and still no cat said anything about it and if anyone did say anything it was, “Poor FreckledWish, she has had a hard life, its only right she gets some affection.”
“Its ok, so long as she goes to the mothermouth when she comes into heat.”
“Yes, we don’t want any kits from her!”
I was annoyed at the last comment. Why couldn’t she have kits? She would make a beautiful mother! I was deliberately ignoring the advice I was given by MapleStripe, in my feelings. I wanted to have kits with her, at the very least one kit.
A moon went by and Freckledwish whispered to me, "I am about to come into heat, let’s go on a Starclan trip together. I will skip the usual mothermouth meeting. I really want to have a kit to you.”
“I feel the same way,” I whispered back, “Let’s leave tomorrow.”
The next day we headed up the gorge to the place where cats would go to mate when their matches were not approved by the clans. We spent several intimate passionate moments over a couple of days. It was not painless for my queen, however, but this was how it was meant to be if we were ever to have kits, and we in our selfishness, wanted kits.
We left not long afterwards and headed back to camp, making sure to bring with us moss from the gorge and other herbs we found on the way back. We carried our spoils in a big leaf we had found that was suitable for just such an endeavour between two cats.
“Are you happy?” I asked her, suddenly worried that guilt might be eating at her.
“Yes,” she replied simply, "Are you?”
I nodded and touched her with my tail to show her just how happy I was. She smiled and headed hope with a skip in her step that I had no choice but to emulate.
It was on this walk home that I started thinking about the consequences of mating with my queen, and I could not help but worry.
