Hildegard rushed up to meet her best friend and now sister.
"Rose." she whispered as she bent down, slipping an arm around her trembling Queen.
Rose was soaked, shaking, and staring blankly at the corpses being lifted from the ground.
Hildegard helped her up carefully. "Rose… take it easy."
Rose jerked her arm away.
"Take it easy?" She said through a broken breath. "My pack is falling apart, Hildegard. Everything around me is burning, dying, collapsing and it is because of me."
Hildegard said nothing.
There was nothing she could say.
Rose inhaled sharply, dragging a shaking hand across her wet face.
Then she straightened her spine.
The Queen resurfaced through the grief.
"Gather their bodies," she ordered the wolves. Her voice trembled, but it carried. "Prepare them for a proper funeral. And alert their families… tell them I will speak to them myself."
The Lycans bowed immediately and carried out her command.
