InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cereal Box Romance ❯ Wolf ( Chapter 13 )

Edited by thyme_cat

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

A/N: Thanks to all of you who supported what I was trying to do with the previous chapter. You are the only reason this chapter was finished. Of course, the 1st in Best OC and Best Serial and the 2nd in Best Alt Pairing helped, too…thought by that time, I was pretty much done, anyway. ^_^

 

 

Chapter 13 - Wolf

 

“Kagome, it's for you!” Souta leaned through the doorway that separated the kitchen from the living room and waggled the phone handset at her.

 

Kagome kept her nose in her book and her ass planted firmly on the couch. She wasn't up to socializing at the moment. The television squawked quietly across the room, providing white noise to drown out the chatter of her mother, aunt and grandfather in the kitchen. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered her, but her name had come up too many times for her comfort. Unfortunately, the commercial now airing was just as irritating, featuring a slick, angular woman selling some sort of miracle face cream to a rapt audience. At any moment, she expected a forked tongue to flick out of her mouth or her jaw to unhinge as she tried to swallow her assistant whole. Kagome shuddered and fished the remote out of the couch cushions, changing the channel as she grunted, “Who is it?”

 

After a pause, Souta said hesitantly, “It's your…fiancé?”

 

Stereo feminine gasps and a raspy wheeze resounded from the kitchen and Kagome flinched. She'd been lucky when Kouga had dropped her off at her aunt's house that no one had been home: they had been out looking for her. Hence, when they'd returned to find her curled up on the couch, still nursing a hangover, she'd been able to blow off her `adventure' with Kouga, saying that she'd hooked up with an old friend while at the beach and stayed the night. It was the truth, with only a few glaring omissions.

 

Yes, she should've called. Yes, she realized that they had been worried about her. No, she would never do it again. She was so, so sorry. Oh, was she sorry. In fact, she couldn't remember feeling more disappointed in herself than she had when she'd woken up with a hangover in Kouga's bed, not including the moment she realized that she'd just shattered a sacred, powerful jewel entrusted to her care. Breaking the jewel had been purely accidental, a horrible consequence of her best intentions. But her night with Kouga? She should've known better.

 

She didn't blame Kouga for what had happened: she had been a willing participant. Had he taken advantage of the situation? Quite possibly, but she had let him. She was as guilty as he was. Ultimately, what was done was done, and all she could do was recover with as much grace and dignity as she could muster.

 

Her first step on the road to recovery had been to withhold her aunt's phone number from him, saying that they had a problem with the line. Apparently, he was more resourceful than she'd expected.

 

“You never told me that Kagome has a fiancé!” her aunt chastised her mother, who laughed nervously.

 

“Yes, well…” her mother tittered as if it had simply slipped her mind.

 

Souta wiggled the handset at her again and mouthed, `What the fuck?'

 

“It's a private joke!” Kagome hollered from the couch at the two clucking hens in the kitchen before her grandfather could chime in with a potentially damning excuse. She could see it now: the old coot shaking his head sadly as he explained, “Our Kagome has a bad case of Weddingus Shotgunus. Poor, poor girl. We were all very shocked…” Kagome winced and groaned, pushing that thought away as counter productive and more than a little disturbing.

 

“I better take that,” she told her brother and slouched off the couch, taking the handset as if it were a snapping ferret about to bite her. Damn Kouga and his arrogant, possessive, presumptive attitude. On Sesshomaru, it had been sexy, if annoying, but on Kouga, there was nothing attractive about it. And now she had some serious explaining to do with her mother. She gave the handset a heartfelt scowl, then held it to her ear. “Hello?”

 

“How's my woman?”

 

Even though she expected it, Kouga's boisterous voice grated on her nerves. An acidic comment dissolved on her tongue, politeness winning out, and she said, “I'm fine Kouga. But why did you tell my brother that you're my fiancé?”

 

“'Cause I am!” Kouga exclaimed without missing a beat. Kagome rolled her eyes and wandered back to the couch, sprawling across the plump cushions in an undignified flop. “I told you I'd marry you.”

 

“But I never said that I'd marry you!“

 

“Don't sweat the details, love. I'm sorry I haven't been by to see you, yet. I was taking care of something. But I promise to make it up to you!”

 

“No, Kouga, that's okay.” How on earth could one wolf be so dense?

 

“I'll pick you up tonight at eight! Wear something nice.”

 

Exasperation got the better of her and she snapped, “Kouga, I said no.”

 

“What?”

 

Guilt shot through her at the broken, disbelieving sound of his voice and she almost quailed from her firm stance. She hated hurting a friend's feelings, and obnoxious as he could be, he was still a friend that she thought she'd lost forever. Could she even call him a friend after what they had done? Boyfriend, lover, her man, or what? Stifling a groan, she smacked the back of her head into the plush couch cushion. She was so damned confused and ashamed that it made her head hurt all over again.

 

“I…I've got other plans...” she winced at the lameness of her excuse. At least she hadn't told him that she was washing her hair. He might have insisted on helping.

 

“How about tomorrow night?” the self-confidence crept back into his tone and Kagome sighed heavily. Perhaps male demons were too mentally challenged to take a hint. Maybe their brains didn't reside in their heads at all?

 

“I'll, um…I'll think about it. I'm sorry, Kouga, I gotta go.” She hung up and flung an arm over her eyes, letting the other dangle off the side of the couch. `Way to be strong, Kagome.'

 

“Kagome.”

 

Souta leaned against the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest, and gave her a piercing stare; the seriousness in his eyes that of a matured man. `Where did he get that look?' Kagome wondered as she peered at him from under her arm. `Who took my little brother?'

 

“What?” she asked defensively, trying not to fidget under his gaze.

 

“You met a friend at the beach, huh?”

 

“I met Kouga,” she said simply.

 

Her brother nodded, the corner of his mouth quirking and his eyes softening. “Still has the hots for you?”

 

Kagome sighed and let the phone slide out of her hand to land on the carpet with a small thump. “You could say that.”

 

“Is it such a bad thing?” The question took Kagome by surprise, but before she could reply, he continued, “I heard you crying over Inuyasha more times than I can count. Did Kouga ever hurt you?”

 

He had a point. Kouga had never called her foul names or pointed out her flaws: quite the opposite, he had always been complimentary, sometimes to the point of embarrassing her. Even when he'd asked her permission to court Ayame, he'd been regretful, barely able to meet her eye-to-eye and close to having his tail tucked between his legs as she could recall. She shook her head to clear away the memory, “Souta, I'm not in love with Kouga.”

 

“Maybe you just haven't given him a chance,” he told her as he walked into the living room and waved a small piece of paper under her nose, then set it on the end table. At her inquisitive glance, he said, “Caller ID,” and winked.

 

Giving her another pointed look, he sauntered out of the room and Kagome was again struck by the changes in her brother. He was growing up and she hadn't noticed. He was also making sense, whether she liked it or not. She'd never considered Kouga as a romantic interest because she'd been too busy pining after Inuyasha and now, Sesshomaru.

 

Kagome blinked and frowned, pulling the inside of her cheek between teeth and nibbling it. `I am not pining for Sesshomaru,' she corrected herself. `He wanted me, I wanted him, and that's as far as it went. Hell, I don't even know if he wanted me; he could've just wanted to win that stupid bet!'

 

Whereas Kouga had always been free with his feelings and had remained true until he'd given up hope. Now, he still wanted her, despite all of her rejections! So, she was attracted to guys who treated her like crap and pushed away the ones that adored her. That couldn't be healthy. Maybe Souta was right.

 

`But I don't love Kouga!'

 

Growling a frustrated sound at the back of her throat as her thoughts spiraled in unproductive circles, she hit her head against the couch again. She knew from experience that Kouga was obstinate and determined: he wasn't going to give up. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to go on this date and tell him once and for all that she was neither his woman nor anything else he had assumed. Their night together had been a mistake and they should just forget it had ever happened. They were friends. Without benefits. Right.

 

And maybe if she hung out with Kouga (and stayed away from alcohol), she could find out where her other friends were. She hadn't asked for details while they were on their first date, and though she was still furious at the dogs for being such insufferable asses, she couldn't deny that she missed them. Inuyasha and Shippo, anyway. Sesshomaru could go to hell…no, she missed him, too. Damn it all.

 

`Would it hurt to give Kouga a chance? But Sesshomaru…'

 

She plucked the phone off of the floor, brushing her thumb over the buttons as she debated with herself. Reason urged her to go on the date to see if she could love the man who professed to love her, yet her heart insisted that she stay on the couch and read romance novels, picturing the hero with silver-white hair and a striped…wrist.

 

She'd always listened to her heart and look where it got her: heartbroken. Finally, she sat up straight and pushed the “talk” button, grabbing Kouga's phone number off of the end table.

 

`I'll go, but just as his friend.' She nodded sharply, desperately hoping that she was doing the right thing. `This is me not pining.'

 

XxxxxxX

 

Inuyasha glared at the smug, handsome face of his one-time rival. The wimpy wolf was way too pleased with himself.

 

To make matters worse, he smelled Kagome again. Ever since that phantom whiff in his brother's office, the girl had plagued his mind. For the past several nights, he'd woken, sweaty and disheveled, from dreams in which he'd been showing her just how much his technique had improved since their last fumbled kiss.

 

No one had known why the well had closed up all those years ago after it had stolen away its passenger. The old hag, Kaede, had only been able to determine that the magic of the well was “greatly diminished”. In other words, it was fucking broken, a fact that Inuyasha had learned the hard way when he'd dived head first into it, nearly cracking his skull open. He'd been devastated, near frantic with worry and for the first time in his life, hadn't given two farts if anyone knew it.

 

Languishing around the village in the dankest funk he'd ever floundered, he'd ended up at Kikyou's desecrated grave and had received another near fatal blow: the grave was once again whole. Sure, the crone had fixed it up to look like a witch had never pulled Kikyou's bones out of it, but it had never felt complete. The moment he'd stepped up to the small alter, he'd known that Kikyou was as out of reach as Kagome. She'd left him behind and without a word.

 

If not for a well-timed beating by a thick spear (almost too well-timed, as if Akago had been stalking him, though she'd never admitted to it), he would have torn up the grave in a mind-consuming rage. Probably the village along with it. Even five hundred years later, he could still remember the fire that had kindled in his veins, burning away his heartache, pain, and love until nothing but fury was left. He owed Akago his soul…and a few good knots on the head. He hadn't paid up. Instead, he'd withdrawn.

 

Two long years had passed as he sat in Goshinbuko, staring at the well and willing it to erupt in blue light, spewing forth a girl whose radiant smile he only now realized had been the sun around which he'd orbited. He'd grown scrawny and weak, not leaving his watch to answer the pleas of his friends, the crying of Kagome's kit, or his own grumbling stomach. The colors of the forest had dulled, the sounds had grated on his ears, and the sunsets that she'd loved had become ugly, garish reminders of his failure. Of what, he didn't know, but somehow, this was all his fault. It was what he deserved as a stain, an abomination, a hanyou.

 

In the pale, dim light of a chilly dawn, a familiar, unwelcome scent, laced with the faintest trace of soot, had drifted across his nose. He would have ignored him, just as he had all the others, if not for the heavy sense of grief that had surrounded him. He hadn't known that his brother could feel sorrow.

 

“This behavior is unbecoming of a son of Inu no Taisho.”

 

His ears twitched to catch Sesshomaru's words but his eyes remained trained on the well. He didn't bother gracing that statement with a response. Why would he? What was the bastard doing here, anyway?

 

“There is nothing here for you.”

 

`As if I haven't noticed that already.' The asshole had a true talent for stating the obvious. Inuyasha closed his eyes and flattened his ears, twisting his grip on the battered sheath of Tetsusaiga.

 

“Brother,” Sesshomaru stated, the word so lacking in disdain that Inuyasha opened a surprised eye. “The undead priestess…”

 

The other eye popped open and two murky, miserable pools of amber glared down at the taiyoukai. His normally pristine kimono was smudged with gray ash and his shining mane of hair was ragged and shorter by several inches. But it wasn't his brother's disheveled appearance that so unnerved him: it was the pinching at the corners of his mouth, the puffy, darkened bags under his eyes, the slight red that rimmed both bottom lids.

 

“She said: `Tell him I did, too.'”

 

“The fuck does that mean?” The question popped out, in spite of himself. “Hey, when did you talk to Kikyou?” For the first time in two years, he launched out of the tree to land awkwardly on the grass, his muscles burning in protest and his joints popping in a raucous symphony. He staggered, catching himself on Tetsusaiga as if it were a crutch, and waited for a scathing insult. Instead, Sesshomaru shrugged, the barest tilt of one of his shoulders.

 

“She was your woman,” he said as if that explained everything and ignored the second question. “She said you must move on.”

 

With a slow, seemingly tired, blink, the taiyoukai turned his back on him to walk into the woods, his steady gait slower than Inuyasha remembered.

 

`Move on? Did she know something about the well?' Stumbling forward slowly, Inuyasha's eyes roved over the well as he puzzled his deceased love's words. Knowing it was futile, he circled it anyway, running clawed fingers over the worn, gray wood that he had memorized, and searching for any clue he may have missed during his long watch. The well remained stoically silent, determined to keep its secrets.

 

“I did, too,” he murmured under his breath, turning the words over in his mind. He smiled wryly when realization finally hit him and shook his head sadly. “I loved you, Kikyou. I'm glad you knew it. I just wish…”

 

But wishing was pointless and he finally felt up to doing something other than sulking in a tree. Somehow, knowing that Kikyou had passed on with love in her heart freed his own from the mantle of sorrow that had chained him to Goshinbuko as surely as had her sacred arrow. And Kagome wasn't gone, was she? She was just a few hundred years in the future. So, first things first…

 

“Hey Sesshomaru! You look like shit,” Inuyasha called after him. To his surprise, his half-brother stopped, then turned to face him, his eyebrow trying to twitch into his hairline.

 

“You are one to talk.”

 

“Feh,” Inuyasha scoffed as he stomped toward him, his steps growing surer every moment. “I ain't the one all worried over split ends.”

 

“This Sesshomaru does not have split ends.”

 

They had drowned their sorrows in women and slowly but surely, forged the reluctant bond of brotherhood that they had been lacking all those years. However, he'd made sure that the secret of the well had stayed close to his heart, never breathing a word to the bastard (as he still fondly referred to him) of the girl's origins. If he knew his brother, and in some ways he knew him very well, the arrogant dog wouldn't let a measly five hundred years stand between him and winning their bet, for no other reason than to spite him for old time's sake. Therefore, as the years passed, Inuyasha had steered clear of the shrine he had loved so dearly during his youth, just so that his shrewd half-brother would have no reason to check it out. Though he may have never loved Kagome as she had wished, she would always be his first best friend and friends didn't let friends get screwed by Sesshomaru.

 

He inhaled a long draught of air, rolling the scents it carried over his palate. For an olfactory hallucination, the smell of Kagome, specifically her sex, was awfully fucking strong. Were his dreams and this imaginary scent some kind of sign? He'd have to be careful, but…maybe it was time he pay her a visit. After all, Kikyou was long gone; his feelings for the undead priestess had been Kagome's only hang up about taking him to bed and though he still cherished Kikyou's memory, he had long since moved on, just as she'd wanted. And even if they didn't sleep together, he had dearly missed her warm smile and joyful, contagious laughter.

 

At the moment, however, he had business to attend to, namely this stupid quarterly meeting of the Council of Cardinal Lords. He wasn't a Lord, but he was the host because his joint, and this room in particular, was one of the few spots they trusted to not have ears in the walls. Lucky him. He sure as hell wasn't taking notes, though.

 

He, Kouga, Sesshomaru and the two other Cardinal Lords were seated cross-legged around a polished teakwood table in a darkly lit little room. Occasionally, a flash of colored light would stream through the one-way window that consumed an entire wall, overlooking the main floor of the club. The padded, reinforced walls and floor thrummed with the heavy beat of music.

 

“Not enjoying the show?” Inuyasha growled to Kouga, jerking his head toward the twin hanyou that ground against the pole on the stage in perfectly timed synchronicity. A swath of red lights arched over the stage and through the window, reflecting off his brother's hair and turning it a brilliant pink.

 

“Naw,” Kouga dismissed them with a careless wave of his hand. “Not interested.”

 

“Do you ever get male dancers in here?” Toran, Lord of the North, asked after a quick glance at the stage. Technically, she was Lady of the North, being female, but old traditions die hard, even if they are just titles. At Inuyasha's grunt, the panther youkai rolled her eyes and tossed a lock of ice-blue hair over her shoulder. “You might draw a wider audience.”

 

“I ain't having males on my stage. I don't swing that way,” Inuyasha snapped irritably and splashed a couple fingers of whisky into his tumbler.

 

Hoshi, Lord of the South, shook his untidy nest of red, spiky hair in mock regret and rolled his green eyes to the heavens. “Inuyasha, you don't know what you're missing. To have a female below you and a male above…” he leaned toward the hanyou and licked his lips sensuously. “What do you say, Puppy Ears? You never know until you try it.”

 

“Oi, back off, pervert! And keep your hands to yourself!” he snapped, sending the roaming hand of the fox demon a withering glare.

 

“Well, I thought it was a good idea,” the Hoshi commented to Toran, who shrugged and smiled, enjoying watching Inuyasha squirm. The insides of his ears blushed the sweetest shade of pink under Hoshi's constant teasing. Everyone but Inuyasha knew that the kitsune only propositioned him to get a rise but no one was about to say a word.

 

Kouga snickered, joining in on the fun. “And here I thought that you'd tried everything, Inuyasha.”

 

“Everything but miko,” Hoshi interjected with a raised finger.

 

Sesshomaru nearly startled when the word “miko” hit his eardrums, not quite able to suppress a small growl. He had been ignoring the banter; his body was on autopilot as his brain fought against the insistent push of emotions that he thought were long buried. In fact, if he'd bothered to think back on his day, he would have found that he couldn't remember much of what anyone had said to him since he'd found the ruined well in the remains of a fire.

 

Not a trace of her scent had remained to tell him whether she had survived or not, and as he'd scoured the rutted, scorched earth of the shrine, two phantom pairs of brown eyes had seemed to stare at him from the shadowed recesses in the piles of burnt timber, disappointment and betrayal darkening their depths.

 

He, Sesshomaru, Taiyoukai of the West, couldn't protect his women.

 

That knowledge was a gnawing, debilitation cancer that ate away at the edges of his ego. Had the word existed in his vocabulary, he might have called it humbling. Of course, he had no concrete evidence that Kagome had lived at the shrine beyond the instincts that had led him to it, nor could he tell conclusively whether or not the occupants had survived the fire. All he had was a gut feeling that something disastrous had occurred to his little miko and guilt that he had, once again, failed a woman that he...

 

“What's wrong with you?” Inuyasha asked gruffly, getting a weird vibe from his normally aloof brother. Only then did he notice his slightly haggard appearance: his navy suit slightly wrinkled, his shirt unbuttoned at the throat and missing a tie, his eyes a darkened, molten gold. Gone were the pomp and decorum that Sesshomaru usually saved for these blasted meetings. In fact, he didn't remember him looking so worn since Rin had died, and he had talked him out of the sacred tree.

 

Broken out of potentially dangerous thoughts, Sesshomaru replied with a disinterested, “Hn.”

 

Hoshi grinned and leaned toward Toran, covering his mouth with his hand as he whispered loudly in her ear, “I heard he's off his game. That would put anyone is a foul mood.”

 

Inuyasha snorted, “Shut up, cornhole. Nobody asked you.”

 

“I'm serious! If you don't take your junk out for a walk once in a while, your stuff backs up against your brain, causing all sorts of emotional disorders.”

 

“I wouldn't know about that,” Inuyasha bragged with a lecherous grin.

 

“Not this again,” Toran sighed and propped her cheek in her hand. Now came the part of the meeting where the males would swap stories of past conquests. It had taken her centuries of honing her power and prowess in battle, clawing her way through tradition and male chauvinism, to acquire a seat in the boy's club known as the Council of Cardinal Lords. If someone had told her that she would spend the greater part of each quarterly meeting listening to her fellow Lords exaggerating their adventures between the sheets, she might not have bothered.

 

Kouga, Lord of the East, grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Like a miko would bother with dog meat.” Sesshomaru growled again, but Kouga's grin just widened.

 

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in annoyance, not liking that smile one bit. He also didn't like the way the wolf was ignoring the women onstage. Kouga was usually a “look but don't touch” kind of guy, but boy, did he like to get an eyeful.

 

Toran cocked her head, an errant lock of blue hair falling over her shoulder. “Kouga, there is something you're not telling us.”

 

“I've found a new mate,” Kouga announced grandly, his solemnity belied by his twinkling eyes and wide smile.

 

“And which female has the dubious honor?” Sesshomaru asked at his most bored. He didn't really care, but he had to do something to keep his mind off of Kagome long enough to finish this meeting. It didn't help that the scent of Kagome's panties had somehow clung to him and now filled his nose, teasing his mind with images of the miko writhing beneath him, and then bursting into angry, wicked flames.

 

“Like any female in her right mind would mate a wus like you,” Inuyasha added knowingly.

 

“I bedded her three days ago. This is just a formality,” Kouga said as he fished something out of his suit jacket pocket. He set the black velvet box on the table, and then leaned back again with a self-satisfied sigh.

 

“What'd ya do, get her drunk?” the hanyou asked carelessly, and then snorted when Kouga winced. “You did! What a fucking prick.”

 

Picking it up with long, elegant fingers, Toran opened the little box, raising a surprised eyebrow as she set it back on the table, still open. A princess cut solitaire, brilliantly white and over a carat and a half, glittered from its padded depths. “So, she's human. Kouga, humans don't have the tolerance for alcohol that we do. You should have known better.”

 

“It was an accident!” Kouga protested to Toran's stern stare. “But that doesn't change anything. We were meant to be.”

 

“Bullshit! No female would willingly sleep with a mangy wolf like you, much less mate you,” Inuyasha sneered and crossed his arms over his chest.

 

“I don't know,” Hoshi interjected as he gave the wolf an appraising stare. “He's not so hard on the eyes…”

 

Toran sighed again and tried to redirect the conversation back to more important matters. The wolf tended to make unfounded, wild assumptions and she felt for the poor woman who may have just been looking for a one-night stand. Some youkai would consider themselves in a mated, monogamous relationship after one sexual encounter (obviously not dogs), but humans did not. As annoying and presumptive as he could be, Kouga had a good heart and she'd rather not see him make an ass out of himself over a misunderstanding that could be avoided. “Kouga, just because she slept with you does not mean she's your mate. Did she actually agree to it?”

 

From long years of association, Inuyasha recognized the telltale shifting of Kouga's eyes to mean that no, technically, the female had not agreed; not that it would discourage the stupid wolf. The kami knew how much he'd pestered Kagome when it was obvious that she had no eyes for any but himself. Still, any excuse to have a laugh at Kouga's expense was a good one, so he made no attempt to harness the raucous guffaws that burst from his gut.

 

“Shut up, you albino freak!” Kouga bellowed as he slammed the flats of his hands against the table and leaned into the face of the hysterically laughing hanyou. Hoshi grabbed his ponytail and pulled him back, tsking prissily to Toran, who only rolled her eyes. Jerking his head to free his hair, Kouga snarled toothily from his seat, “I won't have you laughing at my woman!”

 

As the words “my woman” tumbled from Kouga's lips, Inuyasha's tongue betrayed him, darting to the back of his throat and down his windpipe, blocking his lungs and starving oxygen from his brain, which had promptly dropped into an endless reboot cycle. By the time he managed to cough up his tongue and meet the amused, baffled eyes of his table mates, he had convinced himself that there was no possible way he could have heard what he thought he heard. No fucking way. `Cause it wasn't possible.

 

“Your…woman?” Inuyasha wheezed, just to make sure that he had misunderstood.

 

Sesshomaru's eyes glided from his slightly blue, shell-shocked brother to an enormously self-satisfied, grinning wolf. Sesshomaru recognized that grin, having received one from his father on a particularly balmy, jasmine-perfumed night. And don't forget the scent of sex! It had clung to the old dog like a cloud of gnats, biting and stinging his son with the knowledge of a woman lost. This was odd, that Kouga would be smiling as if he'd just snatched the hen out of the house under the watchful dog's eyes. As far as he could remember, the only female the two had vied for was…

 

It occurred to him in a distant, idle sort of way, as he closed the smoking claws of his right hand around the throat of a much less satisfied wolf demon, that they would have to find a new Lord of the East.

 

“Are we missing something?” Hoshi asked Toran as he hurdled the table to catch Inuyasha mid pounce and pin him to the floor with his body, a hard knee pressed mercilessly to the small of the hanyou's back. Inuyasha bucked and shouted, but Hoshi just gave his butt a firm swat. He was not Lord of the South for nothing.

 

The panther demoness' voice cut through the suddenly howling, icy winds that buffeted about the small room, “I should think so.”

 

A sheath of ice began to coat the taiyoukai's arm that held aloft the wolf and form a rapidly enlarging barrier that obscured his view of a pair of protruding blue eyes and a lolling purple wolf tongue. His fingers were numb and yet he squeezed, ignoring the claws that raked at his hands and the ice shield separating them. A pity about the ice, really, for he would have liked to remove the appendage from which he now knew Kagome's scent originated and stuff it down the asphyxiating wolf's throat. Unfortunately, the ice had become a wall several feet thick, stretching from floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall, holding him trapped (a minor inconvenience, really) from his wrist to his shoulder. Worse yet, his prey was ripped, quite literally, out of his clawed grip.

 

Sesshomaru ground his teeth together and growled, the vibrations humming through the block of ice, “Release me, Lord of the North, or the Council will find itself short two members.”

 

Or three, if one counted the cock he intended to serve to its owner. He punched the wall of ice with his free hand for good measure and smirked as a jagged crack stretched from the indent his knuckles had made to the other side. Kouga released a strangled cough that was far too lively for Sesshomaru's taste and his trapped fingers clenched reflexively, dripping poison onto the lovely, ruined lacquered table.

 

“Lord of the West, you overstep your bounds,” Toran intoned from the other side of the ice wall in her best lordly voice. Next meeting, she would request that her fellow Lords check their testosterone at the door. “This brawl is against everything for which this Council stands, as you are very much aware. If you have a grievance with the Lord of the East, you will settle it properly!”

 

“Yeah, with my foot so far up his ass, he'll be licking my- ow!” Inuyasha barked, then was quickly silenced by Hoshi's grip on his arms.

 

“Now, now, Puppy Ears, let the adults talk and maybe I'll give you a treat for being good,” Hoshi teased as he gave Inuyasha's arms another healthy wrench to make his point, aborting an attempt by the hanyou to throw him off his back.

 

“Hoshi, you aren't helping,” Toran ground out in irritation. Maybe she should just drop her ice shield and let the stupid males tear themselves apart. It would leave several open Council seats, which she would happily fill with levelheaded, rational females. The Council of Cardinal Ladies. Yes, that sounded nice. And they would bring in some fucking male dancers.

 

Sesshomaru eyed the barrier, willing it to melt under his gaze like the wolf should have done under his poison. He couldn't quite decide what angered him more: that fact that the wolf had pre-empted his bet with his brother, that the wolf had inebriated and screwed a female that most definitely belonged to this Sesshomaru, or that the wolf's entrails were not lazily steaming in the chilly air. Unfortunately, Toran was correct. He had to follow the Council law for retribution and eviscerate Kouga in a civilized ceremony.

 

In retrospect, after he had finally come to learn what true happiness really was, he would recognize this moment as a turning point in his life as joy and unbridled fury waged a war within his heart and decisions wrote themselves in stone on his soul. Kagome had not died in the fire like he had feared; she was very much alive and that knowledge sent waves of warmth through his being. And yet, by sheer, idiot luck (for what else could it be?), Kouga had found (and fucked) her first. An ugly, unfamiliar roiling in his gut tainted the relief and fed his rage, though he stamped it down ruthlessly. He needed a cool head and a steady hand to handle this situation properly, for there was only one acceptable outcome.

 

The wolf could lay claims until he was blue in the face, but it would not change the fact that he had stepped onto another, more powerful, youkai's territory. Sesshomaru may have relinquished Izayoi without a fight, but he was not going to let go of Kagome. She belonged to him and there wasn't a damn thing anyone, let alone a ridiculous wolf youkai with delusions of mating, could do about it.

 

However, he had to admit a certain amount of disappointment with his miko's actions, though she had followed his brother around for a number of years, so perhaps it wasn't all that surprising. Then again, humans were notorious lightweights and it was entirely possible that Kagome had only been half conscious when the deed had occurred. Virgins tended to be a bother anyway, what with the pain and crying, so maybe it wasn't such a horrible thing that Kagome had lost hers. He seriously doubted that she had been very impressed by the wolf's performance, so really, Kouga had given him an opportunity to demonstrate what true prowess in bed actually was. None of this precluded his desire to see the wolf dead, for he couldn't quite remember the last time he was so unbelievable pissed off, but perhaps he would strangle him a bit in order to dull the pain before he cut open his stomach. Then again, perhaps he would hang the wolf by his own intestines in order to prolong it. Who knew?

 

“The miko is mine,” he clarified to all present, leaving the precise details of the wolf's demise for later. As an afterthought, he decided magnanimously, “I will present her your head as a gift.” After all, he could simply leave Kouga's head for carrion crows to eat. This offered him a modicum of dignity.

 

From behind the taiyoukai and slightly muffled by the floor, Inuyasha growled, “Neither of you two fuckers are laying a finger on Kagome!”

 

“Don't you jackasses suppose that the girl would like a say in her future?” Toran asked, exasperated, watching an enraged, half-dead wolf as he convulsed on the floor and pawed at the oozing gouges on his neck. The blue lights streaming in through the one-way window colored his face a pale, sickly shade of oxygen-deprived teal. “There will be no fighting, no decapitation…” she eyed the Lord of the West's fingers as they twitched again, glowing slightly green, “and absolutely no ceremonial dueling. She will make her own decision!”

 

“I second the motion!” Hoshi added from his spot on Inuyasha's back and pressed the hanyou's face into the floor when he tried to protest.

 

“Kouga thirds,” Toran said with finality when the wolf gestured his acceptance with the hand that wasn't try to hold his throat together.

 

Sesshomaru growled, clenching his fist hard enough to draw blood. Majority ruled in Council matters, as much as he might dislike it. So be it: he would have to win the girl in much the same game as he had once played with his brother. Only this time, the stakes felt much, much higher.

 

And if the wolf were to meet an unfortunate end in an accidental mangling after this sordid affair was resolved (namely, with the miko tucked safely into his bed), then the Council's ruling would still have been upheld.

 

Slamming the knuckles of he free arm into the wall, picturing the wolf's snout on the receiving end instead of ice, Sesshomaru added another deep crack to the wall that weakened his other arm's prison to the point that he could drag it free. With a cold, menacing glare at Hoshi, who shrugged and climbed off of a grumbling Inuyasha, he swept out of the room.

 

Inuyasha climbed to his feet, brushing bits of ice off his dark suit, then pointed a clawed finger in Hoshi's face. “I want that spineless shit outta my club, you hear me? Don't make me send someone up to bounce his ass,” he said, though he looked ready to do the bouncing himself, and probably out the picture window at the front of the room.

 

“We are leaving, Inuyasha. Thank you for your hospitality,” Toran said politely from behind the melting ice barrier.

 

Snorting, the hanyou stomped out of the room. “Go fuck yourselves.”

 

“Kagome…” Hoshi tapped a thoughtful finger against his chin. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

 

Toran shrugged and flicked a lock of ice-blue hair over her shoulder. “That's the name of the priestess they are always bickering over. The one that helped destroy Naraku.”

 

“Oh, that priestess. But wouldn't she have died hundreds of years ago?”

 

“One would think,” Toran replied noncommittally, less concerned about why a priestess who lived five hundred years ago had suddenly turned up and more concerned about preventing the Council from erupting in mindless bloodshed over the ownership of said priestess. Bending low, she grabbed Kouga's arm and hauled him to unsteady feet, manhandling him over the remnants of her ice barrier. Kouga cussed and sputtered in a hoarse whisper, stumbling when Toran released him with a small shove.

 

“Hm,” Hoshi grunted, not particularly impressed by Kouga's theatrics. “To have wrapped three powerful males around her pinky finger, she must have one tight c-“ he expelled his breath in a giant whoosh as Toran's elbow connected with his solar plexus, and then watched the panther stalk out of the soggy room.

 

“Don't get any ideas, Hoshi,” she threw over her shoulder. “And take that drowned rat out with you.”

 

Laughing quietly to himself, Hoshi shook his head and clapped Kouga on the back, ignoring his yelp of pain. “Well, at least the meeting wasn't boring.”

 

XxxxxxX

 

Kagome perused her reflection with a critical eye, angling her body and giving herself a little pout over her shoulder as she batted shadowed eyes beneath a shiny fringe of black bangs. The low cut V of the back of the dress reached almost to the base of her spine, complimenting her light tan with deep, glossy, burgundy satin. The front of the dress was a modest swag, hinting at the swell of her breasts but not revealing anything more than decency allowed. Clinging to her skin as if it were tailored to her body, the satin draped to the floor in a loose sheath with a tiny, romantic train at the back. Her hair was piled on her head in a messy, I-don't-care kind of way that took hours to achieve, tendrils curling haphazardly around her face and down her back.

 

She had to agree with her brother: she looked hot. Who knew her prudish cousin Kaori had kept such slinky dresses in her closet, much less had worn them? Not that she needed them now, as she tooled about on the ocean and completed her master's in marine biology.

 

Perhaps it was the wrong signal to be sending Kouga, but he had said to wear something nice. And it wasn't like she was going on a date with him: she was accompanying him as his friend. He just didn't know that yet. The fact that one of her youkai friends might show up to wherever it was they were going had nothing to do with the effort she had put into her appearance. Doubtless, it was some romantic little restaurant or other, possibly frequented by other youkai, and it would be complete and utter coincidence if someone, say, Sesshomaru, just happened to be there. She was certainly not dressed for him, not like he'd be there anyway. She was dressed for…herself.

 

She blew a little kiss at the mirror and smiled, silently thanking her aunt for finding the perfect shade of lipstick in the countless number of tubes that inhabited the bathroom vanity as she grabbed her purse from the edge of the counter. Ensconced deeply within was a small, brown plastic ring with “wolf” embossed on top of the disc, compliments of her brother. She'd given him a quizzical look when he'd handed it to her that afternoon. He'd just shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking every bit the teenager he was.

 

“I dunno…I pulled it out of my breakfast this morning and remembered how much you liked them. And it's a wolf, see? Maybe it'll bring you luck.”

 

Kagome had thanked him graciously with every intention of flushing the accursed thing down the nearest toilet. Somehow, it had ended up in her purse. Go figure.

 

The doorbell rang moments later and Kagome turned away from the mirror, switched off the bathroom lights and headed downstairs.

 

“Ooooh, Kagome!” her mother squealed as she met her halfway up the stairs. Grabbing her arm, she urged her down, making excited, inarticulate sounds of glee. Kagome eyed the camera in her free hand with growing dismay.

 

`Please, no. Oh, kami, no,' Kagome begged the silent gods that her mother was not arranging her on the second to last step for the reason she suspected. When her mother backed away, her hands clasped around the camera and under her chin, a wide, happy smile consuming her face, Kagome was hard pressed to stifle a groan. Her fate was sealed when Kouga, accompanied by Souta, who was trying to act cool but only succeeded in looking constipated, strolled into the room.

 

`Hot damn!'

 

The wolf ring broadcasted to her Kouga's enthusiastic thought and in spite herself, she had to echo the sentiment. He looked quite dapper in a tailored charcoal sports coat and slacks with a clingy burgundy turtleneck underneath. He grinned and eyed her from head to toe, brushing back one side of the jacket to put a hand in a pocket and giving her a view of well-defined pectorals that stretched the thin cotton of his shirt. A brief image of her fingertips sweeping over his bare nipples flashed through her mind and she blushed, dropping her gaze. She did NOT want to remember that.

 

“Now, you stand there, Kagome,” her mother instructed, and then looped an arm around one of Kouga's, guiding him to the staircase and Kagome's side. “Such a fine young man he is!” she gushed as she grinned up at Kouga, who grinned right back, wrapping an arm around Kagome's waist. “On the count of three!”

 

“Mo-om!” Kagome finally protested when her mother brought the camera to her eye. Standing behind their mother, Souta waggled his eyebrows at her in such a Miroku-like fashion that she almost forgot to blow him a raspberry. The flash lit the room and Mrs. Higurashi frowned.

 

“Now we'll have to take another one. This time smile, Kagome!”

 

Dutiful daughter that she was, Kagome swallowed her humiliation and smiled for the next picture, trying to ignore the claws that poked into her hip and the appreciative sounds that were spilling from Kouga's brain. At least Sesshomaru's thoughts had been coherent: Kouga was mentally panting!

 

Descending the steps with Kagome in tow, Kouga planted a chaste kiss on Mrs. Higurashi's cheek. “We need to run, but it was good to meet you…Mom.”

 

Her mother grinned and blushed, giggling as she waved her hand in a shooing motion. “You kids run along and have a wonderful evening!”

 

Kagome glared daggers at his pointed ear, fully revealed by the low ponytail that bound his hair. Her desire to know why he wasn't concealing his demon features was far outdistanced by the realization that she had to put a stop to his assumption that they had a future together before her mother planned their wedding. She was getting that nuptial gleam in her eye, the one her aunt had had when her cousin Kaori's relationship with her boyfriend had reached the one-year mark.

 

`What would she do if I told her Kouga and I had drunken sex at the beach the other night?' Kagome thought nastily as she climbed into the passenger seat, carefully pulling her dress's train after her so that it wouldn't get caught in the door that Kouga closed for her. `Scratch that, I don't want to know.'

 

The car ride was quiet, at least on Kagome's part, as she puzzled through her mind the best way to let Kouga down easily and yet make it perfectly clear that there was no hope for a relationship between them. Kouga chattered at her happily, assuming from her noncommittal sounds that he had her full and rapt attention. The moments that she actually did listen, she found that his words echoed his thoughts and was slightly amazed that he was the only demon she'd met who actually said what was on his mind.

 

“Wow, Kagome, you look absolutely fantastic in that dress! Not that I ever had a problem with the fuku - that was hot, too. But wow! I mean…”

 

Only one thought rattled around the wolf's brain without making it to his lips, and it was one that should have given her cause to worry had she been less distracted by planning their breakup. A breakup of a nonexistent relationship, that was. How did she get herself into these messes?

 

`Is she going to be surprised, or what! She's gonna be so happy…'

 

The two-seater antique sports car purred to a stop in the dimly lit parking garage and Kouga had opened her door before Kagome even fully realized that they had arrived at their destination. Pulling her out of the car and into his arms with a helpful hand, Kouga planted a lingering kiss on her lips. Kagome stiffened, trying to pull away and Kouga released her, giving her a knowing smirk.

 

“Don't worry, love; no one's here to see us. Not like it will matter soon, anyway.”

 

“Kouga-”

 

“They really should get valet parking for this joint,” he commented, cutting her off as he led her toward the elevator.

 

Kagome sighed heavily as the elevator whisked them up and tried again, “Kouga, we really need to talk-”

 

“Sure, sure, whatever you want. Later, though.” Kouga grinned down at her, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement and adoration. “Gods, you're so beautiful, Kagome. How did I get to be so lucky?”

 

Kagome blinked and fixed her eyes to the floor, unable to handle the love in his eyes. `This is going to suck,' she thought despondently. If only she could return just a fraction of what he felt for her, then maybe, maybe she would give it a try. Could she love him in time? Was she being premature in her assumption that she could never love him that way? But there was no spark, no chemistry, nothing that drew her to him like what she had shared with Sesshomaru…

 

The elevator doors slid open and Kagome's train of thought was lost amongst the twinkling of thousands of star-like lights strung from branch to branch of several tall, delicate, potted Chinese maples. The trees were widely spaced throughout a large rooftop patio where dozens of demons and several humans mingled, talking and laughing as they sipped drinks and munched on appetizers from small, porcelain plates. At the center of the patio, an enormous, rectangular planter held a healthy stand of bamboo from which fluttered long pieces of paper and brightly colored ribbon. Three telescopes were propped up against the railing pointing towards the murky night sky. Like a paper globe lamp, the waxing moon glowed dimly through the city haze.

 

`This is perfect! The holiday of the star-crossed lovers…she's gonna be so surprised…'

 

Kouga grabbed her elbow and propelled her out of the elevator, leaning down to whisper in her ear, “Do you want to make a wish?”

 

Nodding and feeling like a little girl again, she pulled a slip of paper out of the bamboo holder and accepted a finely tipped brush from Kouga's hand. She had loved this holiday as a little girl and hadn't stopped wishing on stars, never quiet ready to give up on the hope that they could grant her heart's desires. But how long had it been since she'd written a Tanabata wish? She couldn't quiet remember.

 

Hunching a shoulder to hide her writing from Kouga's prying eyes, Kagome drew her wish in tidy characters and folded the paper, tying it up with the countless other wishes that hung from the tree. Kouga huffed playfully and wrapped an arm around her waist, guiding her toward a table laden with appetizers.

 

`She probably wished for a dozen cubs and was too shy to tell me. My wonderful Kagome…'

 

Kagome rolled her eyes and reached for a stuffed mushroom. At least he wasn't thinking in detail about how those cubs would be conceived. Why had she brought the stupid Wolf Decoder Ring with her in the first place? It wasn't as if anything in his thoughts would change her mind.

 

“Excuse me,” a sibilant voice hissed in her ear as someone brushed by her. Kagome turned toward the voice, catching a glimpse of yellow-green slitted eyes before the woman turned away, her hips swaying in her sequined dress as she walked.

 

`Where have I seen her before?' Kagome wondered curiously, chewing her mushroom and snagging another from the platter. Those things were good! And she was a lot hungrier than she'd expected, given the circumstances.

 

Her appetite took a turn for the worse, however, when a small commotion drew her eyes to the elevator doors at the other side of the patio.

 

“Aw, fuck,” Kouga swore next to her, reclaiming his grip around her waist. Kagome had to agree, though not quite with the same sentiment. As her mouth dried to a hot, cottony cavern and darker, more secret places became damp, she was suddenly, overwhelmingly glad that she had dressed to kill. By the kami, she had murder on her mind.