"Brackenbreeze, we have to stop doing this." A creamy brown she-cat gazed at her mate. "I love you, but we can't. This is against the warrior code, for Starclan's sake!"
The golden brown tom nuzzled her affectionately. "You've been saying the same thing to me for the past moon, and we haven't broken up yet, Heathersong."
"I'm serious this time!" Heathersong shoved him away. "We're from different clans! What if someone finds out? We'd be exiled!"
"No one will find out," Brackenbreeze soothed. Heathersong relaxed momentarily, then glared at Brackenbreeze, creamy fur bristling.
"You don't know that!" Heathersong turned away from Brackenbreeze and started to walk away. "You can't guarantee it!" She didn't even look back as she padded into the forest.
"Heathersong!" The golden brown tom raced after the she-cat, green eyes filled with desperation. "Wait!" He managed to catch up to the creamy brown she-cat.
"Think about what you're doing, Heathersong! No other tom will love you like I will!"
"I'll find another mate." Heathersong's voice was polite and cold, but that barely concealed the pain and regret underneath.
"Heathersong, please, for me-"
"I don't care about you anymore! I wish I could, but I can't! Don't you see, Brackenbreeze? I can't love you!"
"But I can." The creamy brown she-cat looked at her former mate. Brackenbreeze's eyes were filled with pain. Real pain. Heathersong could tell that this was putting him through the worst pain imaginable, the pain of being rejected, unwanted.
Heathersong turned away and raced ahead, faster. Brackenbreeze sprinted after her. "Heathersong... I love you."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"Yes it does!" Brackenbreeze exploded. "I would do anything for you!"
"It's not you I'm concerned about right now." Heathersong's claws slid out, making grooves in the dirt. "It's...it's..." Heathersong started sobbing, and Brackenbreeze rushed to her side. "Heathersong...what is it?"
"Our kits! It's our kits!" The she-cat stared guiltily at her expanding stomach. "What if the truth leaks out? What will they feel like?"
Brackenbreeze stared, wide-eyed, at Heathersong. "I-I'm going to be a father?" he asked, his voice rather squeaky.
"No, you won't. Toadclaw will be their father."
The golden brown tom stiffened. "And who is this...Toadclaw?"
"You won't care! Go away, Brackenbreeze, I hate you, I really hate you!" Heathersong turned around and ran in the opposite direction, whizzing past Brackenbreeze. Even though she was expecting, her stomach was barely larger than usual, and her lithe Windclan form made her one of the fastest runners in her clan.
Brackenbreeze cursed his heavy, lumbering Thunderclan body as he ran after Heathersong. "Come back!"
He found Heathersong by the water's edge, tears making ripples in the lake as she cried. "I'm sorry, Brackenbreeze..." she whispered. "I loved you. Once. Not anymore. And I will never love these kits." She placed a paw in the water. "I would rather die than bring them into this harsh world. They would be judged on everything, everything, teased..." Heathersong stifled a sob. "And I believe that I wouldn't care, because they would be yours. I would be a horrible mother, a horrible cat..." The creamy brown she-cat cast a desperate glance towards Brackenbreeze. "Please try to understand."
She took a paw and placed it to her throat, claws out. "I'm sorry."
Brackenbreeze understood what she was going to do a second before she did it.
"No!" he yowled, and lunged at her. But it was too late. Heathersong's claws were already piercing her throat, digging into her flesh. She was making a horrible choking sound and she fell back, blood gushing from her throat, a trickle of dark red liquid coming out of her mouth. The claws dug in deeper, drawing themselves across her throat, making ugly, bright red slashes in her pretty creamy brown fur.
"Heathersong, no! Stay with me!" Brackenbreeze placed a paw on her throat, trying to stem the flow of blood. "Heathersong, please, no!"
The she-cat's eyes were growing dimmer and dimmer, and she coughed, sending a splatter of blood onto Brackenbreeze's paw. "Goodbye, and tell my clanmates what happened..."
"No! You can't, Heathersong, you can't!" Brackenbreeze's voice dropped to a whisper. "I love you."
Heathersong tried to purr, but only more blood came out, and still more of the liquid seeped out from under her former mate's paw.
"You know, I lied," she rasped, blood leaking out of her mouth. "When...when I said that I...I..."
Brackenbreeze stared desperately at the she-cat he loved. "Save you breath, Heathersong, a patrol will come by soon, they'll take you to the medicine cat..."
Heathersong weakly shook her head. "I lied when...I said that...that I hated...you..." Heathersong's voice was a low, croaky whisper. "I still love you, Brackenbreeze."
Then her head fell back, and the light from her eyes was gone. No heartbeat pushed the blood out, although it still flowed. The sticky red liquid stained Brackenbreeze's white paw the color.
"No," he whispered. "No! Wake up, Heathersong, wake up, please!" He slapped his other white paw across the dead she-cat's face. "No!"
Brackenbreeze buried his face in Heathersong's fur, and breathed in her sweet scent, one of wind and sunshine, and tears. Tears that he had caused.
The tom sniffed. "Goodbye, my love."
And he could've sworn that he felt fur brush against his side, and a familiar voice whisper, "I'm sorry. Goodbye, Brackenbreeze."
Brackenbreeze could feel breath on his shoulder, breath that smelled like...her.
"Just remember. I will always love you, no matter what I might say."