//Un//marked

// prologue //

The smell of rain hung heavy, as thick as smoke. Clouds gathered far above, black and foreboding against the little spots of light coming from the dens below. The darkness made it hard to tell what time it was, but she continued to watch the sky all the same.

When the heavens opened up she finally rose to her paws, white fur soon speckled with brown as she made her way through the Twolegplace. The droplets poured down around her, hitting anything they could reach. The cement beneath her became a mottled grey and the white fences turned slippery under the rain's assault.

For a moment, she worried the rain would hold up her companion but she quickly brushed the thought aside. He had promised her a meeting tonight and he wouldn't have forgotten; he was loyal to a fault. And, aside from that, strong and incredibly handsome.

She sighed as she padded through the rain, images filling her head. Perhaps, soon, they would truly be together and not forced to meet in secrecy. A kick in her stomach reminded her of everything she hoped to speak of tonight; everything she hoped would convince him that, this time, he should stay.

Arriving beneath the sprawling willow that was their meeting place, she settled in a nook in its roots, amber eyes focused on the rain as it dripped from the willow's feathery branches. One, two, three drops fell to the water already pooling around the tree and, with some sadness, she realized their meeting would not be a very long one tonight.

"And who might you be waiting for, pretty queen?"

The voice startled her to her paws and she turned to see his broad-shouldered figure before her. His fur looked almost brown after being wetted by the rain but she knew that it was normally a cream, almost golden shade.

A deep breath. "The father of my kits," she replied, settling back into her nook and wrapping her fluffy tail around her paws.

His amber eyes flashed at the news, some of the joy in them receding. "Kits?"

She nodded, unsure whether giving him the news so quickly had been a good idea. For a moon now she had been wanting to tell him, wanting to make their relationship something more than just a few meetings every couple of moons.

"How many?" The excitement had returned to the tom's face and he pressed himself closer.

"I don't know, it's still too early to tell," she said. "But I hope they're all as strong and handsome as you are."

He purred. "I hope they're all as beautiful and smart as you."

Then, he suddenly pulled back, worry clouding his amber gaze. "You won't be in trouble for having kits without a mate around, will you?"

The she-cat blinked in confusion. "Why would that get me in trouble? She-cats around these parts never have to say who the father is if it doesn't suit them."

The tension disappeared from his shoulders but her own confusion remained. "Why do you ask?"

Once more, she saw him tense and the battle behind his eyes told her he was hiding something. Her own fur bristled as she realized suddenly that she might not truly know this tom at all. She didn't even know his real name.

It wasn't that he didn't want her to. Hiding their identities from each other was just safer. If his Clan ever found out he had been here, or if they knew her name, she could only imagine the indescribable horrors they might resort to.

"I ask because she-cats are not allowed to have kits outside of a pairing where I come from," he replied, cutting into her thoughts. "Every season, three or four pairs of cats are named to mate and it is their duty to bring kits to the Clan."