Silver Claws: Blood Twins

Chapter 3

3.

My dreams were of shadows and my father’s blood. I woke up, his wolf face in my head. He had always been so strong. I still expected him to somehow walk into this barn, to pick both of us up and hold us tight.

My father had told me that being a Silver Claw was going to be hard. That for years the royal werewolves had respected humans. Never broke the age old pact of feasting on human flesh. But something changed. The wolves got greedy and thought they could get power from the flesh of humans.

I could still hear Father’s voice. “Once the werewolves fought with humans, Rom. It was a war we would never win, their numbers would overwhelm us. And we didn’t need to eat human flesh. It’s wrong. So we made a pact with the humans. The Silver Claw line was bred to kill any wolf who fed on human flesh.“

“But what made our claws silver.”

“Ha! Magic some legends say. Others say we ingested silver until it became a part of us. Either way we are here.  We are the Watchers. One family of wolf has the Silver Claw. Always a male. He keeps the peace.”

And he had. He killed a werewolf that killed human and he and my mother died for it.

Now here we were. My twin and I were not only alone, but on the run from the Pack. Were we expected to protect humans when we could barely protect ourselves?

The fine hair inside my ears twitched. A soft sound carried on the air. Maybe not even thirty yards from the barn. A nose snuffling against the ground. Searching. Casting. Finding a scent.

Only one set of pads. Not a pack. A single werewolf. A scout.

I closed my muzzle over Rhea’s. She woke but stayed quiet, eyes searching the dark, nostrils flared. She eased her muzzle from mine, sniffed and looked up to the loft of the barn. Her eyes spoke. I know who it is. Quint.

 Quint had taunted me and Rhea in the settlement, had nipped me several times when I came too close. He was a cousin to the Protectors and sly as a trapped fox. Catching us would raise his stature.

I know his stink. He brags that Nero will declare me his mate. Rhea shook her head. Never!

I leaped up to the loft. It creaked and swayed, but held. Jump. It will hold us both. Maybe he’ll look around and then leave.

He’ll still be tracking us then. We have to stop him. Rhea squatted and urinated in straw. Let Quint get a good whiff.

She leaped and landed beside me easily.

I wanted to shout at her, but Quint’s scent strengthened and he stopped sniffing. He was moving with purpose towards us. He eased into the barn, slinking around the sides. His greedy eyes shone in the moonlight. He snorted in a deep sniff and pushed straight for the urine pool.

 I felt Rhea’s thoughts shooting into my head. We have to attack at the same time. The urine was just beneath us.

Quint threw back his head and laughed, showing his soft neck. But he back away keeping him out of our reach. “Stupid pups,” he barked. “I know you’re still in here. Come out.”

Rhea and I tensed. Jump? she sent the thought to me. I shook my head.

When I was younger, my father had taught me how to throw my voice. He said I should use it to confuse prey, to drive it towards you. I had used this trick to catch rabbits several times. I licked my lips, my throat was dry. I couldn’t make a mistake.

“You...you won’t hurt us. Will you?” I threw my voice to a darkened corner.

Quint glared toward the corner, his ears pointing. “Rom. Weak, sniveling runt.” He padded with arrogant confidence towards the voice. “You’re the only one I’ll hurt. Your sister has been spared the death sentence.”

This confused me and made my throat dry. “Why?” I asked, my voice coming from another corner.

Quint turned. Bared his teeth and took a few steps towards where I’d thrown my voice. “Because. Because. Because. Those are the orders. Kill the boy. Bring the girl home. And I always follow orders.” With that he leapt into the shadowy area, landing on a pile of straw, teeth snapping. He came up with a mouthful of straw and a piece of burlap. “Where are you?” he growled. “Show yourself and I’ll make it quick, I promise. But if you keep hiding, I’ll kill slowly. You’ll watch me eat your liver.”

I’d seen him toy with rabbits and deer. He liked to see pain.

We have to fight him, Rhea sent.

Again I nodded. “I’m over here.” I threw my voice into the broken down stall. “Here.”

Quint crossed towards the barn. “Here,” I barked from another corner. He stopped, right below us.

Now, I thought, and both Rhea and I leapt. I aimed for his shoulders, twisting my jaw under to grasp the soft part of his neck. I sunk my teeth in, but his ruff was full and my pup’s teeth couldn’t get a good grip. Rhea landed hard. All four of her feet bunched together close to the middle of his back, trying to break his backbone.

Quint shook with great power, dislodging my teeth. I slid off his shoulders and Quint twisted, grabbing my foreleg as he came near. Rhea’s body covered mine as she scrambled over and launched her small teeth into the side of the bigger wolf’s lip. He squealed and blood gushed as Rhea ripped away a piece of his muzzle. His lip hung loose flapping.

I fell to the ground as Quint whirled and snapped for Rhea. I grabbed his back leg in my mouth, twisted, and fell and heard a satisfying crack and the smaller leg bone broke. His scream exposed his throat. Rhea ran straight for the obvious, but Quint ducked and sunk his teeth into the back of her skull. He picked her up. If the male shook her he could kill Rhea. I scooted under his belly and bit hard on the thing that would made any male wolf freeze.

He dropped Rhea, but I tore back and away. Rhea, undaunted, ripped into the now opened wound in Quint’s belly. She tore and pulled, opening his belly wider. The wolf writhed and screamed but was never able to regain his footing. He bled out on the floor and Rhea and I tore out his heart to make sure he would do no more harm.

Rhea had deep bite marks in each side of her neck and I had a trough gouged along my side. We were alive! Both of us. We had won!

But the blood of a werewolf is strong and death agony travels in the wind. The Protectors would come. To kill me and to capture Rhea.

When Father had charged me with watching over her, I thought it was reminding me of my job as male and older twin. But now I knew there was something important about Rhea to the Pack. Something I didn’t understand.

“We have to run,” Rhea said.

“They will track my scent to the other farm. They’ll kill the humans there,” I said. “We can’t let that happen. You know Father wouldn’t let us. . . “

“What can we do?”

I paced in a circle. “Fire. I went to the farm as a human. Fire confuses the scent. The Praetors will know the werewolf is here in the fire. They’ll know we were here. Maybe they won’t try to trail a human scent away from the fire.”

“The only future this barn can have is fire,“ Rhea said. She moved into the shadows, looped into human form and came out with armloads of straw. She dumped it on Quint’s body.

I changed. Found the remains of oil lamp and broke it, shaking the last drops of oil on the straw and Quint. I used one of the matches beside lamp. We led the fire around the barn with handfuls of straw until we had it leading to the dry walls then headed into the night.