A slight breeze ruffled Feather's long coat as she padded out of her den. Carried by the breeze was the scent of a rogue causing a soft growl to escape from the she-cat. Lifting her muzzle, she sniffed the air to find the pathway of the scent. Frowning, she followed it, finding that it lead into the undergrowth surrounding her den's clearing. "Another spy…" she muttered, gazing into the forest.

She knew it was not Blizzardclaw the moment Frozenkit had taken note of the sound outside their den. Feather had warned her mate to never visit her den again since it would lead to his death. Storm had been trying to figure out who the father of her kits were ever since the day he realized she was expecting. Having the suspicion it was not one of the rogues from their group, he had begun sending out spies to patrol around her den after the kits had been born in hopes they would spot the father. If Storm were to ever figure out it was Blizzardclaw, the fate of her mate and kits was one Feather never liked to think about.

Suddenly, the sound of shaking pine needles caught Feather's attention.

"Long time no see, Feather. How are your precious little bundles of fur doing?" purred a humored voice from one of the towering pines above the clearing.

Feather stiffened, recognizing the voice. "I don't know, Thorn. Why don't you come down here and check for yourself?" she growled, frowning up at the tree facing her.

The pine tree began to quiver as if it had an itch. Scrambling down its dark branches was a brown tom, his amber eyes glistening. Reaching the tree's lowest branch, Thorn smiled down at Feather as he wrapped his skinny tail around the tree's trunk. "Your father sent me to come and check on you. "

"I know that's not the reason you're here, Thorn," Feather replied flatly.

"You're right!" Thorn chuckled. He leaped out of the tree, a short shower of pine needles following him as he reached the forest's floor. "I'm here looking for the tom everyone is talking about" he smirked, gazing around at everything but Feather as he padded towards her. "Is he around, Feather?" he asked in amusement. "Your father and I would be very happy if he were here to introduce himself…"

Feather lashed her tail at the tom. Why couldn't it have been any other rogue? It would be impossible to get rid of Thorn! He continued to pad towards her until their whiskers were practically intertwined. Silently, he began to gaze at her, the smirk disappearing off his lips. Feather held her ground but refused to meet his gaze. She knew the only thing being emitted from his eyes was love.

Thorn loved her long before she had met Blizzardclaw. He had always tried to impress Feather by retrieving the softest of mosses for her nest or by sharing the largest pieces of prey he caught with her. She had received his offerings and kindness with gratitude but never found herself having the same feelings towards him, especially since her father adored the tom. Thorn was one of Storm's best fighters and he was respected by all the rogues since he had killed a clan cat during one of their territory raids on Fogclan. Storm was sure his daughter would choose him as a mate which made Feather want to reject him even more so just to show his father he was wrong. Around the time she began avoiding Thorn –fearing he would start asking her to be his mate- Feather came across Blizzardclaw by Fogclan's border. At that point on, she never regretted refusing Thorn as a mate though she couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow for the brown tom as they stood there face to face.

Thorn must have really believed he had a chance with her since Storm approved of him and the other rogues respected him. The day Storm announced his daughter was expecting was the day Thorn's heart shattered. Out of grieve-stricken anger, he assured Storm he was not the father. This caused Storm's suspicions to form and also caused Feather to build a den far away from the other rogues. Away from them assured her no one would question her kits' appearances. If anybody questioned her to why she wanted such distance she could just use the excuse of wanting some privacy. Luckily for Feather, Blizzardclaw and she had similar colors in their pelts which made deciphering the father of their kits harder for Storm. What if all the kits just happened to look like their mother and not like their father? Storm knew the help of his spies would insure this possibility would not matter so he didn't have to worry about it. He also knew sending Thorn out as a spy might finally get him some valuable information about Feather's mate.

So there stood Thorn, looking at the she-cat he had wanted to spend his life with. He was still hopelessly confused to why she had not chosen him for a mate. Was it something he said? Was his interest in her just not obvious enough? Though he had not seen her kits yet, jealousy pierced deeply into his heart. Why hadn't things gone perfectly for him? As his thoughts began to fade away, Thorn realized Feather had spoken to him.

"Uh what?" he blinked, focusing his attention back on her.

Feather sighed. "I said leave, Thorn. You're just wasting your time here. You know you'll go back to Storm empty-pawed like the rest of them so why not save yourself the energy and go do something more worthwhile?"

Suddenly, Thorn snarled at her as he remembered the reason he was there. Feather flinched back in surprise and he let out a cackle of laughter. "Spending so much time with mouse-brained kits has caused you to go mouse-brained yourself, Feather!" he ridiculed. "I'm one of Storm's most trustworthy followers so I will not fail my mission no matter what," he growled lowly. "I'm the last spy your father is sending out here. Weren't you aware of this?" he sneered, faking a swipe of his claws at Feather.

Feather stopped herself from flinching again but couldn't help but blink in confusion. "Last one…?"

Thorn smirked. "That's right. For the past three moons Storm has gotten nothing from his past helpers, so now it's my turn. I've been given one moon to find out who's the father of your kits so don't think you'll be able to outsmart me the entire time," he snorted before grinning slyly. "Scared yet?"

Feather's fur bristled as she stood her ground. "Leave," she repeated bluntly.

Thorn rolled his eyes as he began to back away from her. "Fine I will leave but not before I threaten you!" he purred in amusement. "I'll give you one moon, Feather. For one whole moon, I'll stall Storm by telling him I think I know your mate is but need more evidence to support it. In that moon's time, you have two options. Either you admit defeat and tell me who it is or you leave the territory. If you decide to do neither of these options, I'll kill your kits," Thorn ended, his lips curling into a snarl. "You should give it some good thinking because you know your father wouldn't mind me killing them," he snickered before vanishing into the undergrowth.

Feather stood there, too shocked to move. She watched the undergrowth open up like a curtain as the tom walked through before slowly closing back up again as he left. Left alone in the silent clearing, she slowly paced around in circles before blinking at her den. Sighing, she mustered up the energy to put on a smile before slipping back into her den. "I'm back, little ones."