Violetpaw dropped the rabbit. “I caught it before I crossed the border.” She wasn’t going to make the sam e m istake as Darktail.
“Why did you come here?” Tawny pelt dem anded.
Violetpaw could see confusion and anger in the tortoiseshell’s gaze. “I want to come back to ShadowClan.” She stared at her paws, her mew hardly more than a whisper.
Spikefur growled. “You chose to leave. You no longer have a place here.”
“Rowanstar told Needletail to take m e.” Violetpaw lifted her gaze, forcing herself to be brave.
“I know I was never really wanted here. But I was hoping I could make a place for m y self.”
Spikefur glared at her. “As what? The Clan traitor?”
“Hush!” Tawny pelt turned on her Clanmate. “She wasn’t the only one who left.”
“They’re all traitors!” Spikefur hissed.
Tigerheart pushed in front of the angry tom. “Violetpaw was only a kit when she left. And Rowanstar did tell Needletail to take her. She can’t be held responsible for her decision.”
Tawny pelt was looking at the rabbit. “Did you catch that y ourself?”
“Yes,” Violetpaw told her m eekly.
Spikefur nudged Tigerheart away. “She m ay have brought others with her!”
Violetpaw puffed out her chest. “I cam e here by m y self! The others don’t even know I’m gone.”
Tawny pelt poked the rabbit with a paw. “It’s a good-sized catch. I can see y ou’re not a kit any more.” She nodded toward the camp. “Come on. We’ll let Rowanstar decide what to do with y ou.”
Rowanstar was resting beside the great rock at the edge of the clearing as Tawny pelt, Spikefur, and Tigerheart escorted Violetpaw into camp. Tigerheart carried the rabbit. As they crossed the clearing, Violetpaw ignored the stares of the ShadowClan cats. She heard Kinkfur whispering to Oakfur outside the elders’ den but couldn’t make out her words. Pinenose watched her from the warriors’ den. Violetpaw avoided the she-cat’s gaze, sham e pricking through her fur. She guessed that Pinenose wasn’t thinking any thing good about her. Stonewing and Wasptail looked up from washing as she passed the warriors’ den. Dawnpelt was rum m aging through the fresh-kill pile, picking at last night’s leftovers. Violetpaw glanced toward the nursery, hoping to catch a glim pse of Whorlkit, Snakekit, and Flowerkit. Perhaps they were apprentices by now. But the nursery was silent, lit by the early m orning sunshine.
Rowanstar scram bled to his paws as he saw her. Violetpaw tensed, straining to read his gaze.
Was that relief in his green eyes?
“I knew y ou’d all come back!” His gaze flicked hopefully past her toward the entrance.
“It’s just Violetpaw.” Tawny pelt stopped in front of the ShadowClan leader. “She cam e alone.”
Rowanstar’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Is she spy ing?”
Tigerheart dropped the rabbit at his paws. “She wants to rej oin the Clan. She brought this as a gift.”
Rowanstar frowned. “Just like those rogues.”
“I’m not a rogue!” Violetpaw flicked her tail. Why did Clan cats have to call every one names? Anger surged through her. Did no cat want her? She’d spent her life being passed around by other cats. First Alderpaw had taken her from her mother’s nest. Then Rowanstar had snatched her from ThunderClan. Then Needletail had taken her to the rogues. This was the first time she’d had any choice in the m atter, and she was choosing to j oin ShadowClan. They were lucky! “I know I’m not a Clan cat now, but I want to be. I’ve decided to come here. But I can always go to ThunderClan.”
Worry flashed in Rowanstar’s gaze. “No.”
“Why?” She m et his gaze, surprised at her own boldness.
“We need you here.” The ShadowClan leader looked suddenly weary. “Perhaps if you come back, the others will too.”
“That’s their decision.” Violetpaw was unconvinced. “Don’t take m e as bait to catch the others.
Take m e because you want a Clanmate.”
Spikefur growled under his breath. “Don’t believe her, Rowanstar. The rogues m ay have sent her. It could be a plot.”
Violetpaw scowled at the tom. “Do you really think they’d send me if they wanted to infiltrate the Clan? I’m the last cat ShadowClan wants. I’m not even Clanborn.”
Tawny pelt’s flank brushed hers. “Rowanstar, I think we should take her back. It was brave of her to leave the rogues and risk coming here.”
Tigerheart nodded. “She m ay not be Clanborn, but she has the courage of a Clan cat.” He blinked at her warm ly.
Surprise pricked through Violetpaw’s pelt. Was it really going to be this easy? She stared at Rowanstar, her heart beating fast.
Rowanstar hesitated, glancing around the camp. Then he dipped his head. “Very well. We need all the warriors we can get right now. I welcome you back to ShadowClan as a Clanmate.”
He looked toward the fresh-kill pile. “Dawnpelt! You will be Violetpaw’s m entor.”
Dawnpelt padded toward Violetpaw, her nose wrinkling as she approached. “Okay,” she agreed. “But I’m not training her until she’s washed off that filthy rogue stench.”
Violetpaw hardly heard her. She didn’t care what she sm elled like. Joy flooded her belly. She was going to be a Clan cat again. A real apprentice!
Chapter 14
Now that she’d been accepted back into ShadowClan, Violetpaw was determ ined to show what a helpful cat she’d become. She rose early each day to fetch fresh bedding for the elders before Dawnpelt took her out for training. She was always last to take prey from the pile at the end of a long day’s hunting. When Dawnpelt was busy, she would help Puddleshine gather herbs. The last time she’d seen him, Puddleshine had still been an apprentice, but he’d been given his full medicine-cat name when Leafpool had returned to ThunderClan. Violetpaw liked helping him. He was always friendly, although he seem ed anxious in his role as the Clan’s medicine cat, and a little overwhelm ed by the daily worries of keeping his Clan healthy.
Her time with the rogues had m ade her a good hunter, and Dawnpelt was im pressed with her skills. Violetpaw didn’t dare explain that Needletail had trained her. She hardly mentioned Needletail or the others, even when her Clanmates asked about them. Rowanstar had pressed her for inform ation about the rogues, but Violetpaw had refused to answer in any detail, say ing only that as long as Darktail was leader, they were no threat to the Clan. She’d heard Darktail say that he had no wish to take over ShadowClan territory, and she hoped it was true. Eventually Rowanstar stopped asking. The whole Clan stopped asking, and she knew that she had earned their grudging respect for refusing to betray her form er campmates. She’d even overheard Kinkfur talking to Ratscar one evening as she’d padded wearily to her den. “If she won’t betray them, then she won’t betray us.”
Of course, som e of her Clanmates didn’t trust her y et. Snowbird and Scorchfur watched her through narrowed eyes. Spikefur barely spoke to her. Pinenose acknowledged her with polite nods but kept her distance. At least Yarrowleaf and Strikestone were friendly enough, content to share prey with her at the end of the day.
She missed Needletail, and guilt j abbed her belly every time she thought of her friend.
Keeping busy helped her not think about what she’d left behind. It also stopped her wondering about Twigpaw and their mother. Could Twigpaw be right? Could their mother still be alive?
Perhaps she should have gone with Twigpaw when she’d asked. Violetpaw pushed the questions away and m ade herself busy each time they popped into her thoughts.