For the few days that she was there, Kouga made sure that Kagome's every need was tended to and she was getting tired of it. It was not that she was getting too much attention it was that all this fuss over things she did not need, and all of the supervision was driving her crazy.

Today had been a boring day so far and Kouga was dealing with tribal manners with the elders, again. Her keeper for the day was Ginta, which didn't bug her. They both got along quite nicely. Right now, Ginta was quietly sitting against the wall, whittling a piece of wood with his hunting knife. Kagome was quietly sitting and drawing things into the dirt on the ground when she sighed and looked up to him.

"Ginta, Can we please go outside so I can sit and pick flowers." she asked.

He let of a knowing grin. "For Kouga I presume"

Kagome's cheeks grew pink before Ginta let out a chuckle at his sister's embarrassment.

"Alright Nee-san just let me inform Hakkaku of where we will be going and we can walk to the nearby wildflower field."

Ginta placed his knife into its holster and the wood into a pouch just off his left hip before he walked right out the door. After moments of silence the sounds of a yell of fright followed by muffled scolding and then some incoherent calm talking before Ginta walked back into the room.

"What happened?" asked a confused Kagome.

Ginta smirked. "The usual, Hakkaku was snoozing and I scared him awake. He never learns though."

Kagome let out a giggle as Ginta motioned for her to follow. They walked through the caves, saying hello to a few tribesmen before the got to the waterfall. It was a sunny day and there were only several white fluffy clouds in the sky, after she looked at the scenery Ginta lead her around the mountain into the field.

All over there were flowers of pink, white, purple, yellow and blue were the many different flowers covered the area. Kagome's face lit up and she laughed and ran into the field.

After laughing thoroughly, Ginta found a suitable spot to sit beside an oak tree and started to gaze at the child-like woman. He watched in amusement as Kagome started sifting through all the different flowers to make an arrangement she thought Kouga might like.

The bushes rustled and brought Ginta's immediate attention to behind him. As he turned he had no time to react as a rock connected with his face and he blacked out.

Kagome had been busy picking several royal blue forget-me-not's when she heard a sickening crack. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end when a slight hissing sound reached her ears, suddenly something in her instinct told her to run. She let the flowers fall from her hands as she stared into nothingness with horror at the remembrance of what made the hissing itself. With reluctance, she turned abruptly to see that there on the ground was an unconscious and bleeding Ginta.

"Ginta!" she yelled.

That was when she noticed the hoard of snake youkai. There had to be hundreds just sitting in the bushes with some coming slowly toward her. All there to kidnap and eat her, they were obviously bound and determined to get her.

She did the only thing that she could think of.

She screamed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Hakkaku was inside the cave talking with several of his fellow tribal members. Apparently, some strange youkai had been spotted this morning and remained unidentified. The details were slim and hardly plausible. However, it was enough to classify it as a possible threat. They proceeded into counter plans against the offending youkai, when Kagome's scream pierced through the cave.

Every living thing in the cave jumped up in panic of their nee-san's scream. The wolves sniffed the air and let out a feral growl. When the scream came to an end, almost every tribesmen made a move to run toward Kagome. A whirlwind of dust stopped them as Kouga burst from the deep tunnels of the cave.

"Where is she!?" he yelled ordering for an answer.

Hakkaku stepped up and ran to Kouga looking just as worried for his sister' as Kouga was.

"She's picking flowers with Ginta" Hakkaku reported.

By the time he had finished, Kouga was already bounding off to the wildflower field with his tribe behind him.

When they rounded the mountain the sight they met was far from what they wanted to see.

The clearing was full of the snake youkai that Kouga had described to his pack. There had to be hundreds maybe even a thousand all closing in on a terrified Kagome.

Over by the old oak lay Ginta out cold with a bloodied rock lying beside his head along with the wildflowers that was stained from his head wound.

Another scream rippled through their ears as three of the offenders grabbed her.

"KOUGA!!!" she screamed.

He could hear and smell her fear and panic. Her body was shaking so hard it was visible from where he and his tribe stood. Kouga's sight was starting to bleed red as he saw one of the youkai hug her to fit against his chest and sniffed her neck. The youkai opened his mouth to bite down and feast on her blood and flesh.

Kouga growled loudly and ran to kill the snake that dare touch what was his. The wind rushed past him at breakneck speed, and he appeared in front of the youkai in the quick blink of an eye. He grabbed the youkai that grabbed his mate around the neck and with a sickening crack he broke the offender's neck in half. The body lay discarded on the ground and the surrounding snakes started to close in to get their prey. Kouga's eyes shaded to a deeper red when he saw the hungry eyes staring at his retreating mate.

Kouga felt his mate's back collide with his legs as she backed away while still on the ground. He watched her slowly look up and relief spread across her face. His wolf was starting to take control as his mate whimpered on the closing in youkai. He turned and looked back up to deal with the threat to his mate, taking in his surroundings.

His men were attacking and taking down youkai's one by one and some being injured in return. He saw his two friends over by the mountain. Hakkaku was fretfully trying to awaken Ginta as it was always dangerous to be unconscious or half dead in a battlefield.

Kouga's attention was pulled back to the snake youkai surrounding him and his mate. He quickly bent down and wrapped an arm around her waist. His mate became startled when he suddenly jumped twenty foot in the air to dodge a number of attacks all at once.

He held her tightly as they descended to the ground away from most of the attackers, away from his Kagome. He landed next to Hakkaku and looked around with his dimming red eyes. He sat his mate next to Ginta, who was slowly regaining consciousness.

"Protect my mate" he growled menacingly.

Kouga was slowly regaining his control of his inner wolf but it was still somewhat in control as he ran to the enemy troops in a dark blood lust. His inner demon ordered that he destroyed all that threaten his mate. One by one he killed them and with each one his blood lust was slowly being diminished

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. /div

As she was set down she gazed up to see Kouga with red eyes killing every enemy youkai he could get his hands on. A moan interrupted her gazing and she forced herself to gather her thoughts. She turned to her injured friend.

"Ginta" she inquired, "Ginta are you ok?"

His eyes were unfocused and his breath was ragged causing him to pant. Kagome looked toward the cut on his forehead. It was deep and bleeding freely, it wasn't enough to kill him but it might have caused a concussion. She pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it firmly onto his head to stop the bleeding.

He smiled, "Thank you sister" he murmured before taking charge of the task of pressing against his wound for himself.

Kagome nodded in acclimation to his thanks and turned to see how the battle was fairing.

Kouga's tribe was not struggling hard against the youkai, in fact there were more wolves than there were snakes, so of course the pack had the upper hand. Not to mention that Kouga had taken down more than half of them himself.

She turned her attention to Ginta whom she saw looked concerned, glancing from Kouga to Kagome.

"What's that face for?" she asked.

Ginta's sat up straight against the mountain as his vision had improved and his bleeding had slowed to a mere trickle. He passed an apologetic look as he once again glanced to Kouga then back to her. She saw that he was looking at her with the face that always made her aware that he was thinking hard on something.

"The enemy is closing in Kagome. I'm afraid that after this Kouga is going to want to mate you as soon as possible. Maybe even right after the battle, and not only that but today's the first day of ookami mating season. I hope your ready sister because I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you to make you hate Kouga" he said worryingly

Kagome frowned a bit. She hadn't thought about Kouga wanting to begin mating, but now that Ginta had said something, it did make sense. Over the last few days, Kouga had been overprotective but caring at the same time. He wanted to make sure she was as comfortable as possible, so he showered her with affection.

However, despite Kouga's efforts, she still had some nightmares about her last capture and dreaming about it going further, sometimes she woke up in a cold sweat with tears flooding her eyes. Her watcher would always ask what was wrong but she could never give a straight answer besides "It was just a bad dream".

Kagome sighed deeply as she thought about going all the way through with it. A small unnoticeable shiver ran through her as she remembered the mouths that sucked her blood from her wounds. However, Kouga's touch - Kouga was much different. Her heart flew at the thought of him touching her and loving her for the rest of their lives. Her face let off a smile as she pictured them together.

"It's alright, I know. I suppose I'm ready. There's no way to tell unless we try it, ne?"

Ginta looked at her with respect and admiration for her courage. He gave a curt nod of approval with a look of relief on his face.

Cries of victory interrupted Kagome's conversation. She looked around to see a field full of dead youkai. The tribesmen all looked victorious and proud to defend their sister, jumping and yipping with their cries of joy.

As she was taking in the sight, strong arms wrapped around Kagome's waist and before she could even finish her "eep" wind was whooshing past her as she was carried around the mountain and back into the safety of the wolf's den.

The wind hit her eyes making them water slightly, so she quickly shut them to stop the tears from falling. The wind stopped and she opened her eyes to find she was in the same room she had healed in.

A low growling brought her attention back and she gazed behind her. Kouga was looking at her with only a hint of red still in his eyes. Slight fear laced through her at the simple thought of his loss of control, causing his wolf to come out. He gave her a long hard stare as if evaluating her, her breath quickened and her heart rate sped up.

He raised her up in his arms, with his arms directly under her breasts. He gripped her tightly bringing her closer, burying his face into the crook of her neck, deeply inhaling her scent. Kagome blushed at his movements and she felt his arms tighten painfully around her.

"K-Kouga" she said in uncertainty.

His only answer was a sympathetic whine, which Kagome knew his questionable tone instantly and smiled uncertainly.

"It's ok Kouga, I understand. I-I'm ready" she said quietly so that only his keen youkai hearing could hear it.

Kouga lifted his head, giving her a look of questionability at her answer to his unsaid question. Kagome carefully pried his arms from her and turned around in his grip. She flashed him a smile that showed she was ready, giving him a simple small nod of the head. Kouga's face showed sheer happiness at her readiness to be his mate.

He carefully and swiftfully picked her up bridal style, being gentle to show his complete love for her. She retaliated his gentle nature by wrapping her hands around his neck as he walked forward to the pile of furs. Kouga never took his gaze from her eyes as he kneeled and slowly lay her down on his bed taking in her beauty. He growled low as she anxiously licked her lips in anticipation.

He dipped his head down to her and sensually brushed his lips against hers, causing her breath to quicken. Their lips met in a chaste kiss that turned into something full of intense need.

His hands roamed her body as he slowly shifted his body to lie carefully on top of her small frame. His kisses moving from her mouth to her neck and he suckled and nipped her with his fangs.

LEMON LINK IN PROFILE