No Way In Hell
Summary: There was no way in hell she was going to step down as princess, and there was no way to fuck that she would lose to a piss-ass lil punk of a pup. But when he threatens her ability to rule through a fight the elders get in the way with a proposal. If Ayame wins Kouga packs and leaves, if she loses, she will take his scent, become his mate, and rule by his side. Guess who the elders are betting on winning?
Rated: M
Pairing: Ayame/Kouga
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
~o.O.o~
"Damnit! We can't hold them back any longer! Get the women and children out of here and get to safety! We will do all that we can!"
An eruption shook the earth, terrible screams of inconsistent growls and hisses all joined into one swoon of noise. Cracking through trees and scissor-cutting through the air, the horde of Yokai blotched out the sky with their mass numbers. Like insects, they covered the world in filth, letting loose countless means of decay and blood.
Hurting anything that held a single twinge of DNA.
The mountains were usually clear, it was however the lower fort bordering the start of the mountain and the flatlands of the forest. They crawled, flew, skittered and wiggled their way past the front lines, chewing and spitting out the remains of the protectors as they passed. These lesser being yokai, were stronger by numbers only, their mass was proving greater than the sheer high power of the wolves who held such pride.
To be pushed back by such low-in-the-slums demons was disgraceful. Yet, here they stood, or rather, here they lay. Their front lines broken down, only few remaining, women and children huddled together inside the caves within the mountains, clinging to a hope that was fleeting.
They were being slaughtered.
"There is nothing more that we can do, if this keeps up, all our warriors will be dead."
"No! I will never let that happen! Please, let me out there so that I may help our people!"
A stifled sigh escaped a set of mouths. Circled around a pit of fire and smoke, old yokai known as the 'elders' were lighting their scent sticks and humming in a low tune. Flicking their pelts around as they hummed to one another and let the smoke circle above their heads. One elder, his right ear clearly ripped clean off, glowered at the echoing voice within the rock walls.
"You are the princess," One of them chided, fixing the woman with a stern gaze while pointing an old finger at her, "Your job is to stay here and watch over the women and children."
Much like the color of her temper, the fire-red haired woman stomped her foot on the ground harshly, this time earning the stare of all the elders, and lifted a pointing finger of her own before growling into the stilled 'room.'
"I am not going to just sit here while my people get slaughtered! Whether I'm a princess or not doesn't matter! Let me fight!"
"Enough!"
The booming voice cracked like thunder, and striked like lightning, piercing her with such a heated gaze it left her stiff and distraught. The leader of them, Gato, was blowing out smoke from his nose. Perhaps it had been the last straw for them.
Admittedly, Ayame had been arguing and yelling for the past hour or so, begging to be allowed to fight. But time and again it was the same, she was the 'princess' and needed to be kept safe. They couldn't just let their leader, who was a female, run into a fight with men, while being a female, and die, because she was a female.
And that was exactly it. Had she been a prince instead, she would be expected to be out there fighing. But because she wasn't packing some extra assets in the genital areas, she was looked down on as more of a liability rather than help.
For this, she fumed.
"You will not step foot outside this cave, for your own good, sit and be patient. Leave this up to the men like it is supposed to."
Her face flushed red almost immediately. "You sexist pigs. Whether I'm female or not does not mean I don't have the ability to fight!"
Gato's eyes, white now as his vision was gone from age, seemed to look right through her. The wrinkles against his skin sagged further, adding emphasis to the frown and shame he was feeling. It was old customs, hundreds and hundreds of year's worth of customs that had been followed so rigidly that the straightest pole would pale in comparison.
Ayame's predicament was everything that it shouldn't be.
A woman cannot be leader of a pack unless she was married into it and her lover died. A female is not to be fighting a war that males should. She should not be bossy, temperamental, and most definitely should not treat her elders with disrespect.
Ayame was all wrong in the eyes of her counsel.
And yet, Gato though blind, could see the fire of compassion. Could understand that she wasn't trying to be a pain or to get in the way of tradition, what she wanted was to save lives, to be the one out on the battle protecting those who can't. She didn't want to feel helpless and useless; she had her father's spirit.
This was a revelation he had long since understood, almost the very moment he held the plump little pup in his arms and felt her bite his thumb in retaliation to him remarking on her fits as being a premonition to a stubborn and temperamental child.
He had never been wrong.
That child now was a princess, however, and no matter the training she did she would always be held to a different standard. While he did feel pride at her fearlessness, her backyard fighting was nothing compared to the real deal. She would get frightened, freeze up, and no doubt die. This, his old heart could not bear.
"No, you will stay my little one, and be the princess you must. Stay strong, and fill hope into those who've lost themselves to fear and doubt."
His tone was final, and Ayame felt tears prickle her eyes at the harshness of it.
She just didn't understand why her life was worth more than theirs. It didn't seem right, and her conscience gnawed at her as she coo'd at the younger children and allowed the comforting gaze of mothers to fill her heart. The longer she stayed with them, the longer she regretted sitting around while their husbands died and left these children without a father.
With one final decision, Ayame waited for a few moments, leaning against the edge of the cave, and slowly slipped out of view.
Her destination: The battlefield.
-x.X.x-
"These yokai attacks are getting bad Kouga."
"Y-yeah, in fact, just earlier we found that there was an attack on the southern border of the mountain where our other clans at. From what the scouts say, they're getting massacred out there."
Standing atop a large boulder overlooking the highest point of the mountain, Kouga's brows furrowed in serious concentration at the news.
'So, they've already been hit by the mass.'
"And no word has come from the west. East is regrouping their ranks, but it's not much. We just fended off our attack like it was nothing, guess those other wolf packs just aint as good as ours, 'eh Kouga?"
The prince yokai whirled around and glared at his longtime friend, blue eyes raging like a hurricane. "Most of our brother and sister packs are either filled with the elderly or women and children. How do you expect them to protect themselves with no men around?"
Ginta made a noise in his throat and lowered his head, "S-sorry Kouga… I didn't… man…"
Letting a disgruntled sigh escape, the elder yokai turned back to watching the view and thinking hard. "Ever since the old man died, I've had to work my ass off to be able to hold his place. Stepping into big shoes that are already molded is hard shit. I have a lot of people making ridiculous expectations of me in comparison to my old man."
Hakkaku frowned at his friends strained words.
"But you know what? I aint gonna be like my old man. I'm gonna be better."
"Better!?" They both exclaimed, Ginta and Hakkaku looked at one another skeptically then blinked. "How?"
With one more look at the sky the handsome wolf jumped off his perch and landed a few feet from his friends, smirking to the wind. "I'm going to unite all our brothers and sisters and put them under one leader. Me."
Ginta yelped with joy, wagging his tail like a puppy, "How ya gonna do it Kouga? You gonna charge right in and demand it? I bet they will just fall at your feet if ya did!"
Kouga mirrored Ginta's arrogance with an even broader smirk. "Well yeah, probably, but I'm going to offer them better protection. We have the strongest and biggest clan than all of them combined. We've got all the men, and I'm sure they'd be happy to join us as a whole pack."
Hakkaku didn't remark at first, but he scratched the back of his head, adding as an afterthought. "You might have some trouble with the South. Hear their leader's quite the spitfire."
Kouga raised a dark eyebrow, "Spitfire? This guy's a real hotshot huh? Well I don't mind-" He suddenly cracked his knuckles, "I'll beat the shit out of him then make him my personal rug."
Ginta let forth a loud laugh, boosting Kouga, until they noticed Hakkaku gazing off, with a sheepish smile on his face.
"From what I hear, she isn't the kind of woman to just stand by and do nothing."
Kouga blanched, "She!?"
"Yes, she." Hakkaku agreed, then snickered at the sudden change in Kouga's expression.
It seemed to be a cross between interest and irritation. Then as if to make up his mind, he looked up to the sky, squinted as a light spark flitted through the clouds, and his blue eyes danced like waves. Lips quirking up into a fanged smile, which was anything less than friendly.
"Let's go pay this spitfire a visit."
~o.O.o~
"Ayame, AYAME! GET BACK HERE YOU INSOLENT CHILD!"
"Pft, like that'll ever happen!"
Ayame ran like the wind down from the edge of the mountain, skidding with expertise into a roll before jumping at the right moment and raking her claws through a snake demons body. It dissipated and splattered to the floor.
With blood on her claws, the redhead winced in disgust but tried to keep it out of mind.
"Well well well princess, 'bout time you came down here to join the fun."
An older male chuckled whilst dodging another attack. Ayame, snickering to aloud, threw her elbow at a rat yokai and pressed her back firmly to his.
"You kiddin me? I wouldn't miss this for the world."
"Hah, you bratty lil girl, watch yourself. You may be a fighter, but you're still the princess."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
The next ten minutes proved exhausting, Ayame was having a difficult time keeping up with men who clearly had experience under their belts in warfare. Still, Ayame struggled further, reminding herself that there were people that needed to be protected.
Her battle however ended almost abruptly as it came.
The demons backed off and swallowed themselves back into the earth, offering them one last growl, as if to say "we will be back."
She was thankful, because god was that exhausting. She'd only fought for ten minutes and the tension in her back was terrible. Sparing a glance around, she took in the grim scene and closed her eyes. This was a result of something so avoidable.
Her eyes fell upon the dead wolves.
They would need to bury their dead tonight.
"Come Ayame, do not mourn their sacrifice."
She tried not to, and ignored everyone else as the tears spilled from her eyes.
'God if I could do anything, anything to end this and protect my people I swear I would. At whatever cost!'
High in the nether between life and death, a twinkle of light sparkled overhead. Ayame would never know that her wish would be granted in the form of an ambitious wolf.
-o.O.o-
A/N: Well guys, just a teaser to test it out and see what you think. It's been a long time since I've written, at least over a year. And I find it better to start with a new project than to continue old ones, so here's a fic of a pairing that hardly gets any love. Also my first fic that isn't a horror, we shall see how this turns, ne?
Next chapter: Enter the Arrogant, pigheaded, egotistical wolf!