A.N.: I have loved the Warriors books since I first really got into reading. This story is about Shadowclan, they're dark and mysterious and I love them. I also wanted the main character to be a tom, since I don't a lot of tom stories (or I'm just missing them). So, here's the prologue and we'll see how it goes!

Prologue

A moan echoed across the dark camp. The whole of Shadowclan shuddered and stared nervously at one another as their leader's mate, Shadedwillow, tried to kit. This was not the first time the queen had been in the nursery. It was actually her fifth time, but all of her litters perished before they lived to open their eyes. It seemed no matter how hard their medicine-cat, Softpetal, tried and how healthy the kits appeared they all passed.

Their leader, Turtlestar, a white tom with a turtle shell like pattern on his back and dark brown eyes, paced restlessly in front of the nursery. He was worried for his mate, and the prophecy he had been given long ago when he received his nine lives hung over his head.

You will be the father to many kits, but only one, and one alone, will live to see the sunrise. A rising storm will destroy the clan, or save them from the dark.

At first, Turtlestar ignore and refused to believe in the prophecy. At time, he had no mate and was not interested in any she-cat in Shadowclan. Being fiercely loyal to his clan also blinded his mind and heart to any of the other she-cats he had seen at gatherings or boarder patrols.

But one, fateful day, he had scented a rouge scent while hunting alone at the edge of the pines. He tracked the strange scent through his territory, finding droplets of blood as he tracked the injured cat. Once he found the rouge, he realized that the car was a she-cat and she was gravely injured. She was also quite fierce and hostile, but in the depths of her amber he saw confusion and fear.

Turtlestar immediately took action after the she-cat stumbled and fell before him. He was almost twice as large as her, so caring her back to the Shadowclan camp was no hassle and barely drained his strength. She reluctantly let the sweet, gentle Softpetal treat her infected wound. After almost two moons, the pretty tortishell she-cat was fully healed.

While the rouge, Shaded, recovered, the whole of the clan got to know her. She let her true colors show. She was not the hostile and terrified cat Turtlestar had dragged back to his camp. No, she was a wise and gentle she-cat who had just gone through a terrible ordeal before the leader had found her.

Shaded said that it had happened two moons before Turtlestar found her in broken state. She had had a wonderful mate and had just given birth to a litter of three beautiful kits before he mate suddenly went crazed and killed her kits. They were newborn kits, and he killed them before their eyes even had a chance to open. This is what had broken the pretty, young she-cat. She had gotten into a vicious fight with another rouge, and that is how she had ended up half dead in the forest.

Turtlestar was instantly captivated by the tortishell she-cat with amber eyes and soft voice. Before he knew it, in the two moons it had taken her to recover, the mighty leader of Shadowclan fell in love with a rouge. He offered her a home within his clan, and begged her to stay beside his forever. He almost yowled with triumph when she agreed.

She refused to be a warrior, and this Turtlestar understood. Shaded was a sweet cat, and she promised to help take care of the queens and elders instead of fighting, patrolling, and hunting. He gave her a warrior's name regardless, and Shaded became Shadedwillow for her gentle and calming demeanor.

After that, it was not long before Shadedwillow joined the queens in the nursery, and Turtlestar had been excited from the moment she told him she was expecting. The prophecy all but forgotten as the joy of having a mate and kits on the way consumed every inch of his mind.

It was not until the sunrise of their birth that he remembered the awful omen. It carried on the wind as it brushed past his ear. Immediately after Turtlestar heard his mate cry out in horror as all of her kits suddenly died that he realized that the prophecy was finally beginning.

In horror and heart-wrenching guilt he informed his mate of the cursed prophecy that hung over him like a dark shadow. Shadedwillow surprised him though, wisdom shone in her amber depths. She had accepted that all of her litters would die, but she believed in Starclan ever since Turtlestar had told her of their mysterious ways when she was still recovering from injury. She told her leader and mate that will stay faithfully stay by his side no matter how many kits she lost. She would continue hoping for that one kit, the one she knew would save them all.

Turtlestar returned to the present and padded swiftly to Softpetal, who had just emerged from the nursery. "How is she?" he asked worriedly, "And the kits?"

Softpetal sighed, her white coat with a single patch of ginger of her left eye was ruffled, "It was a hard kitting, just like the others," she mewed gently.

Just as Turtlestar about to raise his muzzle to Silverpelt and cry out his pain, he decided a hopeful look in the medicine-cat's pale amber eyes.

"What is it?" the leader asked, cautious hope settling in his dark brown eyes.

"There was only one kit, but this one seems different from the others. He's large and sturdy, unlike the other kits."

Turtlestar let a loud purr escaped his chest as relief poured through him. He pressed his muzzle against his littermate's. "Thank you for everything," he purred. Softpetal purred back, "Anything for my kin."

Shadowclan's leader and mightiest fighter was almost brought to his knees at the sight of his beautiful mate curled protectively around a tiny bundle of fur. The other queens and kits were sleeping soundly in their nests, and so the two mates were semi-alone with their kit. He agreed with his sister, this fluffy, dark brown and black tabby tom with black paws and tail-tip was board shouldered and large for a newborn kit. Turtlestar remembered how his other kits had been tiny and weak, and some never even took a breath.

This kit looked healthy as he nursed from Shadedwillow's soft belly. Turtlestar padded to his pretty mate, and pushed his muzzle against her neck fur. He felt his mate's purr vibrate through his nose. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than I have in moons," the tortishell queen whispered, but Turtlestar could her the exhaustion tugging at her quiet voice.

He looked into her eyes and saw that their amber depths were glowing with love. She gazed at her kit as if he was sent straight from Silverpelt and into her nest.

"Do you have a name for him?" Turtlestar murmured in Shadedwillow's ear.

"Yes," she replied slowly, as if she was uncertain about the name she had chosen, "I was thinking Shadowkit, after our clan."

Turtlestar's loud purr echoed in the small, warm den and one of the queens mock-growled at him. He growled back good-heartedly before quieting down again. "It's perfect. He's perfect. You're perfect," the leader began to groom his queen as he kept whispering sweet nothings in her ear. He stayed with her as she slipped into sleep. The Shadowclan leader pushed the prophecy to the back of his mind once more, content that he and his mate finally had the kit they had waited so long for.