Gathering up her courage, she stepped forward and stuck out her hand for one of the wolves to sniff. It was one of the scariest things she had done, which was kind of ironic since she battled demons almost every day.

After this little greeting was all over, and Kagome was a little use to all of the wolves, they headed inside to eat.

When they stepped through the opening they were greeted my a few calls and shouts from other wolf demons.

"I thought your clan was wiped out?" Kagome whispered as she looked around. She knew the closest had heard her, but she wanted to know.

"Most were." Kouga said, sadness entering his eyes. "But these were the pups, now grown. We are few, but we are still strong."

Kagome had never thought about that. There had been pups back then? She had never known. Looking around again as they walked forward to the far end, she did a head count. She had to do it again, though, since some of the wolf demons moved to get a look at her. She ended up with a total of 17, including Kouga.

She was about to comment when one of the youngest, a rather handsome wolf boy, even though he had a scar on her right cheek.

"Is this dinner?" He asked, licking his lips as he looked Kagome over.

With a sickening crush he hit the back wall. Kagome backed. What had just happened? She glanced at Kouga to see that his teeth were bared and his eyes red. His right arm was slightly up…as if he'd just hit the other wolf demon.

"Let that be a lesson to you and the others." He said, growling. "If anyone so much as thinks about eating Kagome they will in for worse then him." He glared across the way at the fallen wolf-boy.

Kagome stared. All this over her? She couldn't help it if someone wanted to eat her, almost every demon she and the others had fought had wanted to. A wave of sadness swept over her as she thought this and as she wondered how the others were.

'I can't.' She thought, looking over at the still down and whimpering wolf-boy. 'I can't let them all get beat up by Kouga because of me.' Shaking her head she looked at Kouga again.

"You know," she started, her voice cold. "A simple 'no, she's a guest.' Would have worked." Turning away so that she wouldn't see his reaction she walked over to the fallen boy.

He whimpered louder on her approach and tried to move backwards, but his back was hurting to much.

"Here now." Kagome said, her voice gently. "I'm not going to hurt you. I can't hurt you really." She smiled. "My punches are like bab…pups punches." This made the others in the room, even Kouga, smile. "Now lay back and let me look at your back."

The boy glanced at Kouga who gave a stiff nod that said if he did anything he'd be dead. Lying down, he turned his head away to the side, so as not to have to look at Kagome.

"Sorry." He said. "I'm still a little new."

Kagome smiled and lifted up his shirt a ways. What she saw made her gasp and her smile vanish. All that she had exposed was black and blue, with a few purple and yellow spots here and there. She tried to get her anger under control, knowing that the others would be able to sense it.

"Hold on." She said, her teeth wanting to snap. "I have something for this."

She turned and beckoned to Ginta, who now held her backpack. He came and set it down beside her before moving off again. Kagome opened it with trembling fingers and drew out a large plastic bag filled with a sticky substance.

"Just hold still." She said and dipped her hand in before spreading the medicine over his back. He hissed as it stung him but he remained still. After she was done with his back and washed her hands with some water from her pack and stood up.

As she had worked everyone had stayed where they were to watch her. Now she locked her eyes on Kouga, who smiled slightly. Glaring she walked over to him and gave him a resounding slap on the face before she walked over to the cave entrance.

"Ginta? Hakaku? Would you mind taking a walk with me?" She gave them both a smile when they hurried to her side. As they left she said without turning back, "When we're back I expect someone to stop hitting others."

The others laughed but were silenced quickly by a look from Kouga. He might love her, but she didn't rule his pack, he did, and he wasn't going to let her turn them against him, even a little.

As she walked on Kagome was in a slight state of shock. She couldn't believe that Kouga hadn't shouted at her or done anything besides look mad. She was a little embarrassed, though, because she knew that she shouldn't be telling him what to do, even if she didn't approve of what he was doing.

They walked on for a little while longer, not noticing that thy were being followed silently from the shadows of the rocks around them.