Chapter 4 – Azaleas Father

The group had all changed back to their original forms, InuYasha and Miroku made a camp fire outside Kagome's tent. Although it was on another beach, InuYasha was able to go find it and the backpack. Everyone was sitting around the fire, thinking about the story they were just told about Azalea's father.

When Waverly was younger, about Azalea's age, a merman by the name of Ahriman tried to court her. She was uninterested and turned him down time and time again. Finally, he became enraged at his endless efforts and failing every time. He took her away and imprisoned her, telling her she would only see her family again if she accepted him as her groom. She refused and he kept her away for months, all to himself. She refused to acknowledge him, fighting every step of the way. The more evil he got, the more he resembled a green sea monster. Eventually he had the idea to take her by force, and make her mate with him. That night she put up the biggest fight of her life and lost. Luckily after mating the merman must sleep off the energy he just spent. After the fight he just had to go through to mate he was exhausted, once he was asleep Waverly was able to escape. She swam as fast as she could, although she did not return to her home. She feared that he would come looking for her again one day, so she decided to always be on the move. Soon realizing she was pregnant she had a decision to make. She could've easily aborted the pregnancy with her magic, and never think twice but something inside her wouldn't let her. Mermaids give birth much like dolphins, and after giving birth to her daughter, Waverly gazed down at her and brought her to the surface. As the sun was setting on that day she looked over and saw a beautiful azalea sitting alone on the shore. Normally Azaleas grow in bunches but this one was all by itself, just like them. That's where she got the name Azalea. As they traveled Ahriman followed, they finally were able to lose him.

The group starred at the fire still soaking in the new information about their friend. Kagome looked at Kouga, who seemed to be tortured by this information. It didn't seem fair, was Waverly technically mated if it was against her will? Would they now both be alone forever? Can't Kouga make an exception? There had to be something she could do.

"Alright we should get some rest if we are going to get back to rescuing Azalea by tomorrow." InuYasha said.

Everyone nodded in agreeance and Sango, Miroku, and Kagome got into their tent. Shippo followed and cuddled with Kagome like Kirara did with Sango. InuYasha and Kouga were sitting outside the tent, and Waverly was sitting in the water out of hearing range starring out at the ocean.

"So what was all that about earlier?" InuYasha inquired

As Kouga explained InuYasha felt a twinge of happiness learning that Kouga no longer had feelings for Kagome. "Well, I don't see the problem." InuYasha said trying to convince Kouga "She wasn't technically mated, she was raped." If he could convince Kouga to mate with Waverly, he might not have to ever deal with him again. "I would go for it if I were you"

"You're not a wolf…" Kouga said looking at Waverly sitting in the water.

"So you're gonna do nothing?" InuYasha asked.

"I don't know" Kouga said. "The rules don't really have specifics like this in them."

Then InuYasha got an idea. "Well, if you're not gonna do anything, maybe I'll talk to her"

"What? Why?" Kouga asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, I mean, she is technically single…and technically so am I…" InuYasha said, Kouga was still just starring at him, so InuYasha stood up and Kouga immediately got to his feet and narrowed his eyes.

"I don't think so! And how could you do that to Kagome?!" Kouga said stepping in front of him.

InuYasha smirked and Kouga knew what he had just done. Of course InuYasha wasn't interested in Waverly, but this showed Kouga how much he was.

"oh" Kouga said turning out to look at Waverly. He didn't say anything else, he just walked out to her.

InuYasha smiled, he had done something good and that gave him a good feeling inside, but he was mostly happy that Kouga's courtship of Kagome is finally over.

Kouga sat down next to Waverly looking out to the ocean like she was. "We'll find her." He said reassuring.

"I hope she's okay." Waverly said, feeling guilty she wasn't out there right now.

"You should get some sleep." Kouga said

"Oh mermaids hardly sleep; we only need an hour or two…" She said looking down "I don't think could sleep anyways"

Kouga was surprised, she only needed a few hours of sleep like a demon. He turned and looked at her, she was still looking down at the water softly waving over her fin. Kouga took his loose fist and gently tilted her head to look at him. "Waverly, did you…feel anything earlier? When we met?"

Waverly's face immediately went red "Um, I don't…" She said embarrassed, how could he have known about that?"

Kouga dropped his hand "I'm sorry, it's nothing" he said turning away.

Waverly placed her hand on his and said "I did, but I'm not sure what it was"

"Like you were cold and warm at the same time, like suddenly the earth stopped moving." Kouga said, expressing his emotions.

Waverly's eyes opened wide "Exactly"

"Wolves have a code of honor when it comes to mates. That feeling indicates to us that we've met our soul mates. Wolves mate for life, and cannot mate anyone who has been already mated." He explained.

Waverly looked down. She was already used, he wanted something new.

Kouga picked her face up again "But I don't care." He leaned in and kissed her. They both felt a cool breeze flow around them, the tingly feeling from earlier was intensified.

Waverly didn't understand how she could feel this strong for someone this quickly, especially during her current crisis of trying to rescue her daughter. As the kiss released they looked at each other in the eyes, Kouga picked up on her emotions immediately, as if their blood ran together now. He knew how confused she was. The most important thing right now was getting Azalea.

The next morning everyone woke up and Kouga watched Waverly transform everyone again to their merperson selves. He then walked up and got ready to jump and she transformed him. He did as he was instructed swimming to relieve the pain. He had a brown tail and took off his top armor leaving him shirtless like the other men. The all swam down to the place they were before and looked around where Sango said Azalea was kidnapped. InuYasha and Kouga tried to sniff around but it was impossible to pick up a scent in the ocean, and on top of that they didn't know what Azaleas father smelled like.

"We'll have to go to his house" Waverly said "If he's still even there."

Everyone followed her in silence, Kouga swam beside her, followed by InuYasha and Kagome and the rest after them. Kagome looked in awe of the two of them, it was like overnight they got this amazing connection. She looked over at InuYasha who seemed to have known what was going on, she'd ask him later. After a while of swimming they came to a cave. They were pretty deep and it was dark, Waverly opened her hands and a glow formed a ball of light between them. She moved the ball of light to the top of a stick of coral from the ground. She made six, so that everyone but Shippo and Kirara had one. Shippo stayed between Kagome and InuYasha and Kirara between Sango and Miroku.

The cave looked abandoned, there was no sign that anyone had been here in years. Waverly looked terrified, which Kouga felt immediately and moved closer to her side. "Is this the first time you've been back since…" he said not know how to finish the sentence.

Waverly nodded, then sighed "I was afraid of this, he's not here."

They left the cave and started swimming away looking for any clue. Then Shippo saw something shine from the sand "What's that?"

"Is it a jewel shard?" Sango asked

"I didn't sense anything" said Kagome

Mioku swam to it and his face went straight when he saw what it was. He pulled it out and showed the group. It was a hair comb.

"Kagura" Kouga said with narrowed eyes.

"who?" Waverly asked getting more confused.

"Kagura, she's a demon from the land." Shippo answered.

"Could she be teamed up with Ahriman?" Kagome asked

"It's possible," Waverly started "But he's never really joined up with anyone before"

"No. This has Naraku written all over it" InuYasha said

"That would explain why the demon knew your name. Naraku must've changed Kagura into a sea monster." Sango added. "It was her"