Dovepaw

I wove through the bushes and into the clearing on the island. Would Tigerheart be here? If he was, what would we do? How would we act? Would we sneak away? All these questions were was all I could think of.

"Hello, Dovepaw," a cool voice said. My heart beat faster. Tigerheart.

"Hi, Tigerheart." I forced my voice to be calm and cool. "You came to the Gathering?" I berated myself silently for asking the obvious. "I mean, you could come, or you asked to come." I sighed in annoyance. "Okay, forget that. How nice to see you!"

Tigerheart purred. Oh, how I had forgotten how lovely his purr was! "Nice to see you too, Dovepaw. And I get what you mean."

I let out an mrrow of amusement. "Glad you understand," I purred. I looked at him, and I could see him staring at me. It made me nervous, him looking at me like I was a piece of juicy prey that he wanted to devour.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Tigerheart asked, his eyes gleaming. "The clearing is crowded."

It wasn't; he just making an excuse. But what would my Clanmates think if they didn't see me? What would they do if they caught me with Tigerheart? I knew. They would kick me out, or if they didn't do that, I wouldn't be trusted. And whoever heard of an apprentice who had a mate?

"Sure," I meowed. "I'd love to."

"Dovepaw!" Jayfeather hissed. "Come here. Lionblaze wants to talk to you."

"See you around, Tigerheart," I said, dipping my head respectfully to the warrior. "Nice talking to you."

"Seriously, Dovepaw." Jayfeather sighed. "The warrior you pick to fall in love with has to be trained by Tigerstar."

"Sure, Jayfeather." I wasn't paying attention, looking after Tigerheart, his broad shoulders pushing through the crowd. "Whatever."

"Listen, Dovepaw." Jayfeather growled. He put his face close to mine, breathing in my face. "I know you two are in love. And I know he is being trained by Tigerstar in the Dark Forest to help against StarClan, and us. So it's best if you ignore it. StarClan knows I know about it." He gazed in distance, his blind blue eyes staring at Willowshine, the RiverClan medicine cat.

"Willowshine?" I asked. "You love her?"

Jayfeather turned his attention to me. Growling, he said, "Medicine cats have feelings too. I'm not as heartless as you think."

I stared at him as he stalked off and walked over to Lionblaze. I could hear him growling to Lionblaze, saying how rude I was. I laughed; he sounded just like Mousefur.

"Jayfeather, you don't know what it's like to be in love." Lionblaze stared at Icecloud, his mate who was heavy with kits. "If it's strong enough, nothing can stop it."

Jayfeather snorted. "Something can. The medicine cat code can stop it." I could tell that he was thinking about Willowshine.

I stalked over to the two toms, my head and tail raised high. Looking at Jayfeather, I said, "I'm sorry. I won't do anything."

Lionblaze looked between me and Jayfeather. "What just happened?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said, my heart breaking and shriveling into a hard nothing in my chest. I had Jayfeather to blame for me never loving again.