Silver Claws: Blood Twins

Chapter 15

15.

For the next whole week nothing happened. I only say that because it was like a little slice of heaven, well, except for going to school. But even school was better. I had to hand it to Rhea, she’d figured out how to tame Lars. He wasn’t making a noise and didn’t lift his finger to poke, push or prod another student. She spent every afternoon recess showing him more words and how to read and write proper. I swear, give her another month and he’d be wearing a suit to school. One day he actually did run a comb through his hair. And Miss Tern, without all the disruptions was able to teach a little to the class. Nothing I didn’t already know, but things just seemed to be in place.

We played that ball and bat game, which they called base ball. I had to hold back. Werewolves are precise and I could have knocked that catgut ball a good distance past the school, but I didn’t want them all to cry foul. Rhea, on the other hand, smacked it so far a couple of times that some students just stared at the sky waiting for it to come down. Lars stared at her, not in an angry way, but with a silly dumbfounded look.

When we were back at home we had chores to do. Lots of them, including cleaning up. Washing clothes, which Rhea hated and I had to help in the blacksmith shop. Wilf was a quiet worker, not one given for talking while he was swinging his hammer, which was likely a wise way to be. But he was kind and he explained a few things to me about fixing horseshoes and pounding out nails and iron bars. I got so I actually liked the heat and the smell of the forge. He let me swing a few times and I was good at it.

“You’re a natural,” he said, “ten years from now you could open your own shop.”

I kept swinging. Ten years. A lot could happen in ten years, no sense even thinking about becoming a smithy or anything right now. But I must say the compliments made me glow.

And all that time not one argument between Hannah and Rhea. It really was a slice of heaven.

We collapsed into bed at the end of the week, my arms tired from swinging the hammer. Both of us had looped into our wolf shapes because it had been so long and human skin was feeling itchy. Like always, I felt stronger and my muscles didn’t hurt as much. Plus we could see in the dark better.

“I miss Mother,” Rhea said. “I miss the way she used to curl up to us just before we slept. Both Mother and Father seemed so strong. I didn’t believe they could ever die.”

“I know.” It had been a long time it seemed since we’d spoken about our parents. Our feelings had grown big inside us and needed to be let out. “I mean Father was a Silver Claw. He could have fought anyone to the death, alone. But Ruga surprised him. And he was trying to protect us. I think otherwise he would have killed her.”

“It’s not fair,” Rhea said. “We know he was right. I want revenge, Rom. I wish we could ambush Nero right here, right now.” Her teeth snapped together and the fur on her neck quivered.

“Not much we can do about it until we’re older. We have to survive. When we’re bigger we can make things right somehow. I’ll be a Silver Claw. That’ll mean something.” Though I couldn’t imagine myself being as big as Father. Ever.

“And what will I become?”

To that I had no answer. Father had told me to keep her safe. Would Rhea be a Silver Claw? There had never been a Silver Claw female. But there had never been a Silver Claw twin in the memory of the pack, and that memory went back thousands of years. There were twin, litters of course, in the royal and half breed werewolves but never Silver Claw. Only single births and only males got the claws.

I rolled over trying to get comfortable. My mind kept spinning back to Quint and the fact that Nero demanded my death and Rhea’s capture. My sense of Father’s urgency to keep Rhea safe being more than protecting a sister. That Abigail and Johnny and those Ravens were not coincidence and more connected with Rhea than with me.

“I don’t know, Rhea. We’re just gonna have to wait a few years.”

“Years! I want to settle this now.”

“Just sleep, Rhea. Sleep. Our time will come.”

I closed my eyes. But even then I knew she had hers open, burning a hole of hate in the ceiling.