Silver Claws: Blood Twins

Chapter 20

20.

You could have heard a nail drop.

“What!” Rhea moved toward Johnny. “You knew Father?”

“Keep still.” Johnny commanded. And there was something in the tone that even made Rhea hold her tongue. “It’s life or death time, you gotta take this all in. No questions.” He started loading the Winchester. ”Yes, I knew your father. Knew him well. We’d hunt together. To tell you the truth, he and I were working towards bringing human and wolf back together again, just like the ancient days. It was a better time then. Not like now. All the scattered packs, together. Anyway, that dream is done for now. He was a good wolf. I wish I had some of his wisdom to guide me.”

I was still stunned silent. He knew Father. All this time he could have told us. Then he hit us with the other side, like a smack in the face. “You see, I knew your mother, too. She’s my sister.”

You could have knocked Rhea and I out with a feather. I couldn’t hear Rhea’s thoughts they were so jumbled. I felt my neck hair stiffen like I was going to loop, my head was empty of human reason that wolf thoughts started filling in the gaps.

 Then Hannah spoke bringing me back to myself. “You told me she was dead, Wilf. You said Maggie was dead.”

“Well she is now. What else was I supposed to tell you?”

“But how can she be your sister?” I asked.

“She was turned wolf, you know that. Fifteen years ago. She met your Father through me. She loved him right away. Begged to be changed so she could be with him. She took a new name, Maya, too. Your Father taught her how to control the change.”

And now it made sense. Mother never did talk about her relatives or where she came from. And here they were in front of me. My uncles. Rhea was coming to the same conclusion.

I can’t believe it. Mother, Father, all of. . .them. They knew each other, they... and never told us anything. Rhea shot into my head.

We’ll we’re telling you now, that was Johnny’s mindspeak, plain as day. It ain’t polite to talk this way when others can’t hear the meaning.

“Fine,” Rhea said. “We’ll talk aloud then.”

Johnny continued. “Abigail is my sister too. I believe you met her.”

Things were spinning so hard I wished I could be on four legs so I wouldn’t be so dizzy. “Wait,” I said. “Abigail told me she had a twin that died. Does that mean.. .”

“Your mother was Abigail’s twin. My sister. Wilf’s sister. Yes. Twinning runs in our family.” Johnny handed me a holster with a single gun. “Strap that on.” He looked at me. “I know this is all right confusing. And it seems like I’m too calm about it, like I don’t care. It’s not that. It happened a long time ago. For me. For you this is all new and all at once. I can explain all of it when we got more time, but right now, there’s a pack of werewolves coming to snatch up your sister and kill everybody else in this town. Just because you’re in it.”

He looked at Rhea. “You learn to shoot a rifle?” He handed her the weapon without waiting for an answer.

“We don’t have much time. I’m going out to warn the people in town. See if some of the men will man up and gun up and fight with us. The wolves are going to come in during the day, like men. They have guns and know how to shoot them. Abigail said there’s a sheriff they turned wolf a year or so back that’s in with them now.”

I remembered the man on the boat with a badge and the scars on his face.

 Johnny seemed to talk to himself. “My guess is they will say I kidnapped the twins. They’ll call me out and try to kill me. They’ll kill Rom and try to kill Wilf too. They want Rhea. To bring her back to their pack.”