Soul Bonds

24. Ya'll totally saw this coming, right?

Silence reigned as the ground shuddered with the impact. Even Marie's victorious shrieks cut short.

In a heartbeat, North was over the edge. The skittering of claws on rock was the only clue that he had not followed them to the grave.

They were all frozen for a moment, then Sean followed. The rain of small rock bouncing off his furred hide during his descent told him his brothers were following.

Sean knew what awaited them at the bottom of the quarry. The best he was expecting was a brief moment to say goodbye. He prayed that somehow he was wrong, but he knew he would not be.

The sight at the bottom of the quarry was nothing he had hoped or dreaded or understood.

Sean shifted to two feet as he jumped the last few feet to the bottom.

He slowly approached North's wolf form, curled in a black ball in the middle of blackened and cracked rocks. Ash plumed with each step Sean took.

North's wolf growled low at his approach, then lifted his head as he scented his brother. Tucked against his belly were two barely fledged birds. One was pure white, the other had feathers ranging from red to white, and all the shades between.

Sean's mind felt so slow as he tried to understand what he was seeing, and how he could not be seeing what he should. He was fighting against the flicker of hope over not finding two broken and bleeding bodies. Nothing had made sense since they returned from camp, but this made even less sense!

His brothers gathered around him, the soul bonds telling him Kota had not descended the quarry with the others. Sean's mind still puzzled over the two birds. There was something about the coloring...

"Oh, fuck me, Trouble! Can't leave you alone for five minutes!" Gabriel groused as he bent forward to address the birds.

"And, you, Victor! You better not have gotten shot on purpose to show me up over being stabbed! Fucking show-off. You'll be coasting on that fame for years. You two aren't plannin' on staying like that for long, are you? Someone's going to have a heart attack!"

Of course Gabriel would instantly see what Sean's brain was trying to piece together.

The little white bird clumsily made it over North's wolf's foot, sparks dancing over its feathers with each movement. Sean's heart nearly stopped as his mind put the information together.

The little bird stumbled forward a few steps, then flared into a pillar of fire. It was gone as quickly as it appeared, and in its place, stood a very human and very naked Victor.

He collapsed to his hands and knees, jolting Sean into action.

"Princess is fine," Victor gasped out. "She's just very tired and maybe a little embarrassed."

Sean mentally checked him over, using his new wolf magic juju.

"Will you please stop calling it that?" His wolf whined in his head.

"Nope." Sean mentally replied.

Victor was, miraculously, fine, if low on energy. As Sean poured energy into Victor, Gabriel threw a pack of Skittles at Luke. As soon as Kota had figured out the trick of moving energy among the team, Luke somehow had become their sugar fueled power plant. Luke was thrilled. North was not.

In very short order, Victor was standing on his own power, dressed in a shirt from Nathan and Gabriel's pants.

After a silent communicative glance with Sean. Owen spoke. "What can you tell us of what happened?"

Victor looked down, his long fingers tapping a forceful tune on his leg. "I'm... not quite sure. It was all so fast, I really don't know. One moment, we were falling. The next, we were on the ground..., as birds."