Lucy's POV-

The look on their faces was enough to make anyone fall apart. They lost so many. Too many!

When we finally made it to their inhabited lands, I fell apart right along with them. The flames felt like they were licking me, going up my legs and engulfing me fully. I felt like I had been there when their lands went up in flames. When their people died.

Dead bodies lined the area, making me yearn for their lives that had been lost. I felt the Moon Goddess within me weeping for her beloved creations. She wept for the senseless killings that had taken place. Her people were supposed to live!

With no words, a little girl, probably not even of shifting age yet, ran forward. Sam wasted no time and ran as well. I was sure that he was going to find his perished mate. His mate that he'd never know.

I squeezed Kale's hand, telling him that I was going with Sam through the mind link, and followed behind Sam silently. Sam and the little girl both stopped at the same body... The same deceased body.

"Laura," the little girl wept. "Sissy!" She cried and shook the body in panic.

"She's gone," Sam sobbed. "My mate is gone."

The little girl cried hysterically as he pushed the woman's body harder, willing her to wake up. I quickly grabbed the little one and cradled her to my chest, trying to comfort the distraught little girl.

"B-but... my sissy!" The little girl bellowed in grief. "My sissy!"

"Sam came up next to me and shushed the little girl. "Tell me about her," he asked gently as tears cascaded down his cheeks. "What was your sissy like?"

"Laura is the best!" The girl sobbed. "She took care of me when momma and daddy went away. My sister took care of me when they left! Then she didn't let them separate us! She brought me here when they tried! She told me that no one was going to take me away from her!" The little girl sobbed violently into my neck as she spoke. "But they took her away from me!"

I hugged the girl tighter to me. My heart was broken. She was too young to have to deal with that pain. She was too young to have to go through that.

Sam smoothed out her hair and hugged her as well. He was sobbing right along with the little girl. He lost his mate, and she lost her sister. I felt their grievances deep in the pit of my chest. It spread through my body even faster than the fire had. We lost more loved ones.

Sam took the girl from me and cradled her in his lap. She was his last connection to his lovely mate. She was the part of her that continued living.

I moved forward to his mate's body. She was burned on her legs and arms. Thankfully, the fire hadn't overtaken her fully like so many of the others had. She was a very pretty girl with chocolate brown skin and wildly curly hair. She looked fierce and warrior-esque. I couldn't help but to think about how perfect she could have been for Samuel.

Without thinking, I leaned my forehead onto hers. It seemed to be what the Moon Goddess was pushing me to do. Our third eyes touched, and I was thrown into a world of powerful scenes.

I watched as she protected her very small toddler sister, Thea was the little one's name. I watched as she grieved her dead parents. I watched as the fierce lady, at only seventeen, ran from the Northern territory with a small, three year old Thea in tow, vowing to never return to her old pack. She was ready to fight! She did not like the way The North was doing things. They tried to take her sister, the only family she had left, from her!

I watched as the woman protected her charge with everything in her. They lived as rogues for a month before she made it to this pack. She accumulated scars, trauma, and hurt along the way with the way she was having to protect herself and her sister. However, she never gave up. She kept going to give her sister the life that she wanted.

I felt her relief when the pack took them in. Safe... they were safe at last. They spent three years in this pack. She took care of her little sister as if she was her mother. She taught her, loved her, and adored her. She would have made Sam so happy!

Then... I watched her last moments. I watched the way she protected her pack so proudly. She had gotten her sister to safety and was helping herd more pack members to safety. She knew... She knew that she wouldn't make it, but she also knew her duty. She felt responsible to protect all of her people, even if it meant her death... she was ready. She would have made the best Beta female. She would have made the best friend!

I felt the flames engulf me, just as they had her. However, the flames didn't matter when a certain wolf came around, her old Alpha. He simply reached out and broke her neck as if she were nothing. Dead. He killed her as if she hadn't mattered. He killed her as if she didn't have a life.

I was thrown from the vision as I sobbed. I sobbed for the loss of her life. I sobbed for the loss of Thea's big sister. I sobbed for the loss of Sam's mate. I sobbed for the woman that could have been. I just sobbed. She wasn't supposed to die! She was supposed to live!

My tears trickled from my face to hers. I watched as my salty tears slid down her face and into the scorched ground below us. She had cried, just like I did. She had lived, just as the rest of us did. It could have been any of us. However, it was her life that had been cut short. She had died at the hands of The North, leaving behind a life that never will be.

"Lucy?" Sam's voice whispered in awe.

I finally sat up and looked at my Beta with questioning eyes. However, my eyes caught sight of the white Chrysanthemums that had grown from the scorched ground and surrounded Laura's body's head in a sort of halo.

"They're beautiful," Thea said as she ran a finger over the growing flowers. I smiled at the girl and removed the necklace that was around her sister's neck and put it on hers. No words were needed, Thea just smiled at me gratefully before kissing her sister's cheek.

"How did you do that?" Sam questioned slowly as he gestured to the flowers.

"I didn't," I answered. "The earth is paying her respects. She's showing her grief for us. I think that my tears might have triggered it, but I didn't do it." I removed the ring from Laura's body, a simple and small silver band that was on her thumb and gave it to Sam for him to keep as a reminder of his deceased mate.

Sam took a ragged breath in and nodded in pain. "Thank you," he whispered to no one in particular. "And thank you, Lucine, for finding out more about her. She would have made me the happiest, I know it," he acknowledged as he cradled the ring in his hand. She would have...

"How did you know that I had visions of her?" I finally asked as I brushed Thea's hair back as she settled in my lap next to her sister's body and held her hand.

"It seems that you speak your vision when it is needed," Sam nodded. "I was longing to know about my mate. I was yearning for a connection with her. So, you gave me that."

"The Moon Goddess gave you that. It might have been through me, but ultimately thank the Moon Goddess. For I am just her mouthpiece," I said softly.

"You're her chosen," he said as he brushed his hand over his mate's face. "She chose exactly the right person for the job, Lucy."

----

We laid them all to rest. I felt heavy and hurt as everyone's grief struck me harshly. The Moon Goddess was grieving through me as well, and the Earth was trying to cradle us all even though it had been scorched in the crossfire. It was all too much. It all hurt.

"Fear not, loved ones," my mouth spoke in the ethereal voice that I knew only partially belonged to me. The Moon Goddess was speaking through me. "While, yes, their lives were all cut too short. They are in a good place with the Divine. They are all loved. You have access to them at anytime, you just have to ask. Ask and listen, and you shall receive, my children. They flew to the moon today and they live amongst the stars with love and light. I feel your grief, I know your hurt, but do not pity them at all... For they are the happiest among us all. Know that their love and life live on through you... through all of you! Celebrate the life they led and honor the life that they could have had. That life is living through you. Move on, but do not forget them all. Fight for them all just as they fought for you. Fight for yourselves and fight in their honor, but do not let this harden your heart... We are love. We are life. If we let this turn us all into savages like The North, then what is there left to fight for? Do not lose your morality in this fight. Do not lose that love that is in your heart."

As I finished those words, with tears falling from my cheeks, a border of white flowers encircled the mass grave of the destroyed pack. People watched in awe as the flowers grew and gave them peace and hope. We were going to win. We were going to heal. If not for us, then for them. For all the people that The North had hurt. We had to win.

"Let us go to our pack territory and remember all of these people who's lives have been lost. Let us celebrate their lives and remember the good. For tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow, we will press on in their memory. Tomorrow, the day will be clearer and full of love, and we will always remember," I said gently. "From ashes, just like a phoenix, we will rise!"

A/n-

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