A Catmas Gift
CHAPTER 1: Another Queen?
"Bombie?"
"Hmmm…?"
"Do you think Munkustrap's been acting kind of…well…strange lately?"
Bombalurina tore her attention from the intense task of pedicuring her claws and glanced up at her sister, Demeter. "How so?"
Demeter frowned. "Well…for one, he's been pacing around a lot lately."
"Doesn't he always do that?" Bombalurina ducked to avoid the swipe Demeter took at her and smirked.
"No. He seems sort of…preoccupied. He doesn't seem to notice I'm there half the time."
Bombalurina's eyebrows shot up. Uh-oh, this could be bad…
"And that's not all," Demeter continued, noticing her sister's expression. "This morning, he brought me breakfast-in-bed."
Bombalurina was clearly baffled. "What's so unusual about that?"
Demeter looked exasperated. "Bombie, don't you get it? He hasn't given me breakfast-in-bed since our first mating anniversary!"
"Well, maybe he's getting back that tiny bit of romantic spark he used to have," Bombalurina said nonchalantly as she returned to her pedicure.
Demeter grabbed Bombalurina's paw and looked into her eyes. She looked desperate. "You don't understand! He hasn't been acting like himself lately. There's only one solution." Demeter swallowed hard and blinked back tears while her sister watched expectantly. "He must be seeing another queen." The words were obviously forced out of her throat.
Bombalurina gently extracted her paw from Demeter's tight grasp. "Deme, dear, don't you think you're being just a little bit melodramatic? The idea of Munkustrap cheating on you is…well, it's unthinkable! Preposterous! Why, he adores you to pieces! I'm sure he'd do anything for you. I'm sure there's another – a reasonable – explanation."
"But what else could it be?"
"I…" Bombalurina faltered. What other explanation could there be? "I don't know," she admitted softy, mentally kicking herself as the words escaped her mouth. The scarlet queen sent a silent prayer up to the Everlasting Cat that there was another explanation.