“Well?” Jayfeather demanded, an edge to his tone. “What’s this all about?”

Squirrelflight and Leafpool gave the three littermates a long look. Hollyleaf realized that although they were such different cats, the expression in their eyes was the same. She didn’t want to recognize it; she didn’t want to admit that it was love.

Finally Squirrelflight took a deep breath. “Leafpool is your mother,” she began, “but I want to say that I couldn’t have loved you more if I had given birth to you myself. We raised you together, and surely that’s what matters.”

“You raised us to believe in a lie!” Hollyleaf hissed, not giving her brothers a chance to respond. “We have nothing to say to either of you.” Ignoring the shocked looks on Lionblaze’s and Jayfeather’s faces, she added, “Come on. There are no mothers here. A mother would love her kits enough to tell them the truth.”

She stood for a moment longer, savoring the anguish her rejection had called up in the two she-cats, then whipped around and began stalking back to the camp.

“Hollyleaf, wait!” Lionblaze called.

Hollyleaf glanced over her shoulder; fury surged through her and she bared her teeth in a snarl. “Come on!”

Lionblaze bounded after her, followed a heartbeat later by Jayfeather. “This is mouse-brained,” he protested. “We could at least talk. They might be prepared to tell us things we need to know.”

“Like the name of our father?” Hollyleaf snapped, not breaking stride. “No, there’s no point in asking them. We’d only get more lies.” She lashed her tail, trying hard to dismiss Squirrelflight and Leafpool from her mind. “Sol will tell us,” she declared.

“Bring the moss over here,” Hollyleaf directed. “Whitewing’s kits will come soon, and she needs a really comfortable nest.” Since the disastrous meeting with Sol the day before, she had struggled to put her sense of betrayal out of her mind and concentrate on her Clan duties, but she couldn’t manage it. How could she make herself a good warrior when she knew she should never have been born at all? Every cat knew that medicine cats weren’t allowed to have kits. She and her littermates were nothing more than a mistake. One that Leafpool had been too ashamed to own up to. Maybe their real father would feel differently….

The nursery seemed full of queens and wriggling kits as Foxpaw and Icepaw staggered through the entrance with huge balls of moss. Whitewing was curled up nearby.

“Thanks, Hollyleaf,” she mewed. “You’ll make a great mentor when you have an apprentice of your own.”

“I hope so,” Hollyleaf replied. How can I have an apprentice? How could I teach a young cat about the warrior code, knowing what I know?

She was helping the two apprentices to spread out the moss when she was startled by a sudden yowl of alarm from the clearing. Before she could do more than look up, Rosekit shot into the nursery with every hair on her pelt fluffed up. “It’s ShadowClan!” she squealed. “ShadowClan cats are in the camp!”