Her secret was out. Softpaw couldn't keep it anymore and for some reason she trusted the three apprentices.
"How far along are you?" Lilypaw asked.
"I don't know. About a moon I think." Softpaw replied. She hadn't really been counting. She heard a gasp behind her and immediately recognized it. Silvertail. She turned and looked at him with her eyes opened wide in fear. He just stared back at her in amazement. "You mean I'm going to be a father?"
Softpaw nodded shakily. "Yes. You are, and I'm going to be a mother." She expected Silvertail to be happy, but he seemed angry.
"This is not good." He meowed in disappointment.
"I know, but aren't you kind of excited?" Softpaw asked.
"No."
"Gee thanks." Softpaw hissed, anger bubbling up inside of her. "I'm going to be a warrior in three moons and I'm going to have kits in one. It's going to cause some problems when you're not being supportive."
"Why?" Silvertail asked, genuinely confused.
"First of all, I won't become a warrior until my kits are apprenticed. I won't be able to train until they're out of the nursery. We'll be apprentices together."
Silvertail's whiskers twitched. He seemed to think it was kind of funny. Softpaw glared at him, he was making her extremely mad. "You have hardly spoken to me since I told you that I love you, which was a moon ago! I hope you're not expecting to be a part of these kits lives."
Silvertail shrugged and stalked away. Softpaw sighed and turned to her new friends. They all looked at her, but they didn't know what to say. Finally, the gathering was over and as the other cats were called over to their clans, Nightpaw whispered in Softpaw's ear. "I'll help you out if you need anything. Good luck." He gently touched noses with her and Softpaw bounded over to her clanmates. They all padded back to camp chattering happily, except for Softpaw. She glowered at Silvertail because he was flirting with Darkfang. Out of nowhere, Whitefoot slipped away from Brightleaf to walk beside Softpaw.
"Don't want to talk about it." She growled through gritted teeth. Whitefoot just looked at her mildly. "I know. I just want to know what's wrong."
"I'm having Silvertail's kits. That's the problem."
Whitefoot sighed in disappointment. "I was really hoping that wouldn't be it. I'm guessing he wasn't very mature about it."
Softpaw nodded. "He thought it would be funny that my kits and I would be apprentices at the same time."
"That's untrue." Whitefoot disagreed. "I'll train you myself once your kits are a moon old. That's about when they can eat fresh-kill. I'll even be their father if you want."
Softpaw purred and rubbed against the white tom. She finally remembered why she liked him so much.