Peering out, Lionpaw saw thin shadows streaming through the thorn tunnel. The light-footed shapes were filling the clearing, hardly visible under the moonless sky.

He blinked in disbelief. An invasion?

“Attack!” Lionpaw screeched the alarm and shot from the den. He slammed into a WindClan cat, surprised that the wraithlike warrior felt so real. Noise exploded around him as, snarling and hissing, the WindClan invaders turned on him. He lashed out at the barrage of paws, keeping his hind paws firmly planted against the onslaught.

Then he dropped and crouched, letting the attackers fall in upon themselves, and wriggled out of the melee.

ThunderClan warriors were streaming from their den, pelts bristling, eyes wide with shock. Hollypaw raced into the clearing with Cinderpaw, Icepaw, and Foxpaw at her heels. “Why are they attacking us?”

This was no time for questions.

“Circle the clearing and pick off the outsiders!” Lionpaw ordered.

He ducked as a WindClan warrior leaped for him, then arched his back. His attacker rolled clumsily over him, landing wrong-footed as Lionpaw spun and leaped for his throat.

Only just in time, he re-aimed his attack, biting the WindClan warrior sharply behind the ear and rolling him to the ground. I nearly killed you! Lionpaw realized how close he’d come to tearing this warrior’s throat out. “Get out of my camp!” he hissed, hooking the warrior with his forepaws and raking his belly with his hind. Or I will kill you!

The WindClan warrior wriggled from his grasp but didn’t flee, only disappeared into the throng of cats fighting in the clearing. Lionpaw tried to follow him, but the WindClan warrior’s pelt disappeared into the gray, writhing mass.

A flash of white! Cloudtail was shouldering his way through the crowd. Sandstorm’s pelt glowed at the far side of the battle; close by, Lionpaw could make out the white-patched pelts of Sorreltail and Brightheart. Whitewing was outside the elders’ den, slashing side by side with her apprentice, Icepaw, at an advancing line of WindClan warriors. Graystripe reared up at the entrance to the nursery, battering a WindClan cat with such force that it scrambled backward, hissing, into the crowd.

Brightheart rolled past him, grappling with a spitting WindClan tom.

Graystripe grabbed the tom, hooking him away from his Clanmate and tossing him aside like fresh-kill. “Get inside the nursery!” he yowled.

While Brightheart slid inside the nursery to defend the queens and kits, Graystripe planted his paws at the entrance, his glittering eyes daring any cat to come close.

“Lionpaw!” Ashfur’s yowl sounded from the elders’ den. “Get over here!”

Lionpaw scooted around the edge of the battle, ducking past flailing paws. Whitewing and Icepaw were still fighting the oncoming WindClan warriors, their fur darkened with blood.