Chapter One

I laid in my mossy nest in the warriors den, staring at ground. Every other cat was asleep, but I couldn't fall asleep myself. I kept replaying the scene with Dovewing in my head, wondering how things had gone so wrong.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of pawsteps and I looked up. Dovewing was padding out of the warriors den. As soon as she was gone, I crept out of the den and followed her scent trail. It led me to the secret entrance out of camp. What is she doing? I thought. Why is she sneaking out of camp in the middle of the night?

I followed her a long way, all the way to the ShadowClan border. Then, she walked out of Clan territories and over towards an abandoned Twoleg nest. She let out a loud purr as soon as she was a tail-length away. I watched in disbelief as a massive dark brown tom walked out of the abandoned Twoleg nest. Tigerheart?

I stared in shock as Tigerheart rested his tail gently on Dovewing's back and touched his nose to hers. Dovewing purred. "Oh, Tigerheart," she meowed happily.

The expression of affection and longing on her face made me look away. She chose that piece of ShadowClan fox-dung over me! I thought to myself. How could I have been so blind?

I couldn't bear to watch Dovewing with Tigerheart anymore. I turned around and walked back through the forest towards camp. I snuck back down through the secret entrance into the warriors den as the horizon was turning pink.

I rested my head on the ground and wondered if there was anything I could have done better to win Dovewing's heart. But I decided that she wouldn't have loved me no matter what I did.

"Oh, Dovewing," I whispered to the fading stars. "Can't you see that I loved you first?"