In Nobody We Trust

Prologue
The soft pitter-patter of light rain roused me from my nest in the dark tunnels. My bones ached with cold and exhaustion. My black pelt sagged off my prutruding ribcage.

"Breezepelt!" someone yowled from outside. "You won't guess what I found!"

I growled under my breath in annoyance. I padded through the tunnel and stopped at the entrance, gazing up at the gray, rainy sky. "What is it, Nightcloud?"

The black she-cat bounded down the hillside and skidded in front of me. A rabbit hung limp in her jaws. "Prey!"

My ears instantly perked. We hadn't gotten a taste of prey for the past three weeks, with the exception of a scrawny field-mouse. "Give me it!" I snarled, ripping it from Nightcloud's jaws and swallowing mouthfuls at a time without chewing.

"I'm the one who killed it, I should've gotten first bite!" Nightcloud growled, shoving me away.

The food settled awkwardly in my stomach, most likely because of lack of food. But it didn't matter, I wasn't going to let my food go to waste. I hissed and snapped at Nightcloud's ear, dragging her away. She yowled in surprise and landed a blow on my shoulder. We then both went rolling across the wet mud, screeching and clawing at each other.

"Would you two relax?" Another she-cat meowed coolly from the tunnel. A slender, long-furred brown tabby she-cat padded out of the tunnel, her pelt ruffled from a good night's sleep. "I guess you two forgot about the prey stash I found near the ShadowClan border?"

"Prey stash?" I repeated, "Tiger, if you're playing tricks on us--"

"I'm not playing tricks!" Tiger hissed. She looked to Nightcloud, "Eat that rabbit. I'll show Breezepelt the stash and he'll bring you and Luke back some as an apology for attacking you," She meowed, glancing to me.

I rolled my eyes. "Can we go already?"

"Well then let's go," Tiger snapped. She bounded up the hill that protected our tunnels, and didn't even look over her shoulder to see if I was still behind.

I remember those 7 moons ago, when I ran away from the clans. Ever since then, Nightcloud and I ran quite far from WindClan, into the moors miles away. We had collected two rogues on the way--Luke, a large dark ginger tom and Tiger--my mate, yet we never showed much affection for each other.

My ears flattened against my head to silence at least some of the pounding rain on my head. Mud was flown onto my pelt and in my eyes, and stuck to my paws like tree sap. I was sick of doing runs to the clans to steal prey just because our camp didn't have any prey.

Tiger halted suddenly, and we weren't anywhere near the ShadowClan border.

"So where's the prey?" I asked, skidding to a stop in front of her.

"There is no prey," Tiger said. "At least not now there isn't."

"You did lie!" I snapped. "Dragging me out here for nothing," I mumbled under my breath.

"I didn't drag you out here for nothing," Tiger argued. "I have to tell you something."

"You couldn't have told me in camp?" My tail lashed in agitation. "Come on, I'm freezing to death out here."

"I'm having kits," Tiger blurted out suddenly.

Oh great Tigerstar, I thought. "Seriously?" Tiger nodded. "I don't--I don't want kits!"

"Do you think I want them? Of course I don't!" Tiger growled. "We're rogues, Breezepelt. We don't have a code like your clans did, we kill and steal for a living. I want to do that instead of staying in the tunnel nursing kits."

"Okay, well we'll dump them off on some clan as soon as they're born," I suggested. "They'll never know I was a WindClan outcast and Dark Forest warrior, and they'll never know you were a rogue."

"Sounds good," Tiger agreed. "Now come on, I promised Nightcloud and Luke prey, so we're going to go catch some."

I shouldered passed her and led the way. My mind was clouded with insane and disturbing thoughts. I longed for the feeling of my claws being dragged across those kits' throats. Wouldn't the Dark Forest smile at me?