Kale's POV-

We made our way back to our own pack territory with heavy minds, bodies, and hearts. Don't get me wrong, it had been a good turn of events and the war ended much better than we had anticipated with many fewer deaths. The fact is though... We were still hauling numerous dead pack members to our homes to bury. We had still lost countless, valuable people. People who we all loved. We all lost parts of our family.

It weighed heavily on my heart. I felt the grief from everyone around me. I felt their sorrow and hurt as plain as day. I knew that when we made it back to our territory, it'd be even worse and more overwhelming.

As soon as we stepped into our territory, the anxious energy was suffocating. They hadn't a clue what had happened since we had no real way of contacting them until we were close enough for mind-link to work. We hadn't been able to bring phones with us because werewolves were sensitive to the frequency that they transmitted; they would have felt us before we wanted them to, and we had wanted to be stealthy and undetected when attacking. Unfortunately, that meant that my pack had to just wait. Waiting for your loved ones to come back after war was so anxiety inducing and maddening.

As soon as we broke out of our own thick forest, people from all the packs were gathered around. They had all gathered as soon as they felt us close enough. They wanted to see the damage. They wanted to know all our fates and futures.

We quickly stopped when we got to the group. Lucy had slid off my back almost before I had come to a complete stop.

"Triage! Triage!" She called loudly.

There had been several people from our pack and our allies that had been severely hurt. We had patched them up enough to get them home, but they were still in critical condition. We needed to get them to our pack hospital to get treated. We had to pray that we could save them all...

Most all of us had injuries in some way. I had scratches and claw marks all over my chest and back. Sam had a broken foot and dislocated shoulder. Evanna had rows of magic lashing marks all down her arms from the dark spells that she had encountered. Grandmama had claw marks sliced across her face. Lucy had the same lashing marks that Evanna had except hers were concentrated more on her shoulders and back, and they all had turned a black color due to the dark spell that she had taken for Eva; the dark spell that still coursed through her veins even now... Lucy also had regular gashes and cuts from the things that Raven had magically thrown at her all over her body.

None of us were that bad off. It could have been worse. I mean, Alpha Blue had a gash the size of a fist in his chest where someone had reached in to pull his heart out. Luckily, Wes and Blue's Beta saw what was happening and helped get him out of the situation together. Blue hadn't lost his heart, but he was slowly bleeding out due to the hand-size hole.

Trevor, my third-in-command, had the whole side of his torso torn open. Before we carried him home, we even had to stuff organs back into his body. Luckily, his wolf had already begun healing him.

"Cory..." Nat whispered with a white face.

"Natalie, focus," Luce said in a strong voice.

"Cory..." She whimpered as Lucy directed the person to take him towards the hospital.

"He will be fine," Lucy told her. "His wolf is already healing the wound. There are others that also need help... Others from your pack. Nat, focus.

Cory had a literal piece of his neck bitten off. Luckily, a few of the witches had been near. They were able to get the bleeding under control before he bled out. Now, it was a matter of healing. He was critical, but he wasn't as bad off as the guy who had a literal tree limb still hanging out of his stomach.

"Right, right, right..." Natalie said with a shake of her head and began directing people along with Lucy.

As we each started our tasks, we all recounted the tale of our fight with the ones who stayed behind. Everyone was shocked about what it had come down to. Everyone was grateful that it hadn't been worse.

I started organizing the bodies of our fallen with the others. We had to sort out each dead person by pack. It was tedious and absolutely depressing to look at each body and figure out where they belonged. The truth is... they belonged there with us, alive and well... but they weren't.

We had decided to bury the people from our own pack underneath a tree next to the other tree that had the people that died in the attacks with my parents buried underneath it. That tree was large and grand, it had grown tall and strong after our people were laid to rest underneath it. It had the power of our people under it, feeding and loving it. And now, another tree would too.

Our people were returning to the earth from which they came. They were being dispersed amongst the stars to watch over us. They were ending and beginning all again...

It was a beautiful cycle. However, it hurt knowing that our loved ones were gone. We would miss them. We would miss them next to us, talking to us, and simply being themselves for us.

Death was a beautiful process, but a painful one as well. It taught us to let go. It taught us how temporary each one of us are. However, not only are we temporary... We are permanent. Within each of us, there is a certain permanence. We have been here. We are here. We are a part of this. It's all within us, and we're within it all.

I heard a sharp breath from behind me as I stared over all my dead pack members. I felt the pang in my heart. I knew it was her, even before her scent hit me. I knew it was Lucy by the whimper that she let out as she walked over to me. So many of our family members dead. They were gone... Our family.

"I know," I whispered to her and pulled her into me as I held her against my chest letting my own grief wash through me for a moment. "I know..."

"They're gone," she whispered softly with a slight sob. "Goddess rest their souls, and we'll honor their lives... Together."

"Together..." I echoed and kissed the top of her head. "We need to inform their immediate family members."

She nodded in agreement as she looked over all the people whose families that we'd have to inform of their death. More tears flowed as she walked in front of each and every one of them. As her tears hit the ground, little wildflowers grew all around. The flowers intertwined beside every single body. The flowers encircled the bodies beautifully. The earth was paying homage to our fallen pack members.

It was at the end of the line that she gasped. It was the very last bodies that she cried even harder.

"Oh... Oh," she sobbed.

"I know..." I said quietly and came up behind her to hug her.

"That's..."

"I know..."

"But..."

"I know..."

We both gazed at the two dead people. Lexi's mom laid there with her throat ripped open, and Lexi's father laid there with a gaping chest. He was completely missing his heart all together. Her parents, both of her parents are gone. She was an orphan.

"Oh, my poor girl," she whispered into my neck when she turned around to hug me back. "They're gone."

----

I hadn't thought about how awful Lucy and I had looked. We looked pretty damn beat up. However, Lucy wanted to tell the families before they got their hopes up. That had taken precedence over taking a shower, getting patched up, or changing. We needed to inform every one of our fallen.

So, that's what Lucy and I did together. We went to each family and informed them of our loss. We cried with them. We hugged each of them. We honored their loved ones. We loved each of them.

We had purposefully left Lexi for last. Lexi had a special spot in each of our hearts. She was Lucy's bestest friend, and she was my little moon running partner. We both cared about her a lot, and we knew that this one was going to be difficult for all of us.

"Lucy!" Lexi exclaimed with a grin as she ran up to hug her.

"Lucy!" Thea exclaimed in the same manner with a hug to her as well.

They then turned to me and much to my surprise, hugged me as well. "Alpha! Hi!"

"Hey, loves," Lucy said gently and sat down on the grass in the area where the kids had all been lounging around as the adults took care of all the after-battle situations.

"Did we win?" Thea asked.

"Of course, we did!" Lexi answered with a grin. "Everything went great! Right, Lucy?"

"Uh... Well, actually we didn't win necessarily, but it has been resolved. Things are going to be changing. We're going to enter a time of peace," I told her calmly.

"See! We won! Everything is finally fine!"

"Oh, sweet girl... That's not exactly how everything works," Lucy said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes, in war... things happen," I answered her. "Things that we can't understand. Things that hurt and tear us apart."

Thea nodded in understanding with a sad look on her face. "But it's worth it because we fight for what we believe in. We fought and we came out with what we wanted. Things had to be sacrificed..."

Lucy sighed quietly. "People, brave and wonderful people, sacrificed themselves for us. They fought for the peace that has finally been restored."

Lexi looked at me with a thoughtful look. She knew... She knew something was wrong. Even Thea was beginning to tear up.

"Lexi-love..."

"No," she sniffled.

"Lex..." I tried.

"No," she sniffled again. "My mom and dad are both going to be coming to get me soon."

"Baby," Lucy sighed. "Your parents are gone. Both of them have made their journey to the afterlife."

"No!" She screamed. "They're fine! They told me that Thea was going to keep staying with us after everything was over! We're finally going to be real sisters! W-we... We can't be a family without parents! I need my parents! They aren't gone!"

Lucy wrapped her arms around Lexi and rocked her gently. "I know... I know..." she whispered to her quietly. "I know it hurts, Lex. I know."

"Wh-where are we going to go now?" Thea whimpered as I pulled her to me. "I have to stay with Lexi. I must! Sh-she's my sister now! We need to stay together! Th-they said- A-and... Lexi said that her moon parents died in an attack a long time ago. W-we... We have nowhere to go now. Why does this keep happening? Why do I keep losing my family?!"

"You have us," I found my self saying to both girls. "You have Samuel, who loves both of you like crazy. Wes, who is funny and so smart that he can help you with literally any problem ever. Eva, who is a witch and is the most intuitive person that I know. You have your pack. You have us, and we have you. I know that it hurts, and it's going to hurt for a long time. However, you have people to help you through it. You have me and Lucy."

Lucy looked at me. No words were spoken between us, not even through the mind-link, but we both knew... Right then, we both knew what we were signing up for. Saying the words were just a formality at that point.

"We are your moon parents now," Lucy told the girls with conviction. We were taking responsibility for them with The Moon Goddess as our witness. "You have a family, you will be sisters, and we will love you as if you were our own... We have you. We will take care of you."

Just like that, I felt a bond that I had never known before forge in between all of us. I felt the responsibility become me. I felt the pure love fill me up.

It was no longer just Lucy and I... It was us. It was our little family. We were all broken, orphaned, and completely torn by the harsh war that had gone on around us. However, now, we had each other... And eventually, I knew that we'd all find peace together.

We all had each other.