Leaning on his shoulder against the opening of the cave, Kouga watched Kagome as she slept, his lips pursed and head tilted to the side. It was only just after dawn; not late enough in the morning for anyone but really the hunters to be awake, but light enough for the wolf's eyes to no longer shine as he looked inside. He had spent a good part of the day before away from the den, dealing with an issue that was brought to him to sort out, and hadn't returned before everyone turned in for the night. The only one still awake to greet him when he got back was Otto, the omega member of Shun's pack, and it wasn't but a handful of minutes later the animal turned in himself.

That was one of the most difficult night's sleep Kouga could remember having in a while, and an hour of tossing and turning, he gave up and in an attempt to keep from waking Kagome with his restlessness, he got back up. He ended up spending his night perched on an outcropping of rock, overlooking the mouth of the cave, his mind refusing to shut down. It plagued him with thoughts and images that came from both sides of the preverbal coin; pros and cons, so to speak, revolving around the situation with Kagome.

Being in the thick of things at the den, watching as she slowly immersed herself into his way of life, made it very difficult for him to remain objective enough to either not A, just flat out go back on his word or B, sabotage the whole fucking thing. The ten hours he spent away from the den and away from the sights and sounds of his pack accepting the onna might not have been a lot, but it was enough for him to take a small step back and begin to take the steps needed to keep his promise. Only one tangible idea came to mind, however, and that was to do the one thing he never did before.

Only for her would he actually use his Eastern Lord title to his advantage.

Before he returned to the den, he sent the wolves that were with him to the remaining points of the compass, calling upon the other three Cardinal Lords to meet in the only neutral ground between them, which was, ironically, the fucking Bone Eater's Well. It was dead center of the island, and the only place where all four demonic territories overlapped. It would take two days before his wolves returned with news of acceptance or denial to his request from the Lords of the North and South, but if he was honest, he wasn't overly hopeful.

Of the four, Kouga was the most elusive. He hardly ever went when he was called upon, so unlike the other three, there were no real ties to the other territories. He didn't have unrealistic expectations of them, and he didn't have the kind of relationships with them they had with each other. When it came to demonic duties, he mostly kept his nose down, only really concerned with his own region of the land, and not really caring about the other ones. He had always been far more interested in kind of trouble he could get into, or cause if the mood struck, than he was dealing with demon politics.

Kouga got his title the same way they did, it was inherited. However, unlike them, he wasn't raised to rule. He was raised to lead. Growing up, he never really understood the difference, but there was a big one. The lords of the North and South were the prime examples of the difference. Kouga was on the front lines, knee deep in whatever was going on while they sat on their fat, lazy asses and had everyone else do their dirty work, which is fine when you're a female that is clearly terrified of breaking a claw or something. It was ridiculous for a male who was able bodied and perfectly capable of defending his own lands.

Maybe it was just a canine thing because he knew the Western Lord did, in fact, walk his lands and defend them against bullshit, but the Cat of the North and the Snake of the South showed it was clearly not a nobility thing.

The rest of his night was spent trying to figure out how he was going to explain to Kagome she was possibly going to have to cough up her actual origins if she ever wanted to return to them. Kouga didn't fuck with magic. Nothing good ever came from it, so he had absolutely no idea if anything could actually be done to undo it. He knew what the monk said, but the monk had then turned around and exposed himself as a fuckwit, so Kouga was far less inclined to actually believe him. Besides, demons were the creators of dark magic, so if anyone would know how to undo it, it would be a demon.

Sighing through his nose, Kouga ran a hand down his face and pushed himself off his shoulder and picked his way through the sleeping bodies to his bed where the miko slept. Crouching down next to her, he placed his finger to his lips when Shun picked up his head, and then set his hand on Kagome's shoulder. Giving her a gentle shake, he waited for her to eyes to open and smiled at her when she did. Her dark brown eyes were glossed over, but she nodded slightly when he prompted her to stay quiet.

Kagome, having no idea what was going on, slowly climbed to her feet when she saw Kouga crook a finger at her, looking around when she was standing. Keeping her voice down when she saw everyone still asleep, she quietly cleared her throat. "What's going on? What time is it?"

Setting his hands on Kagome's hips when she swayed slightly, Kouga glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping men and hummed as he looked back. "It's sunrise, and I need to talk to you away from here."

More awake than she was a moment ago, Kagome blinked. "But what about Shippo?"

Cutting his eyes to Shun, he tilted his head toward the smaller sleeping chamber, telling the animal without words to keep an eye on the kit before looking back at Kagome once the wolf was off to do as he was told. "He'll be fine, and we should be back by midday."

What he failed to mention was Kouga had heard back on one of those requests he sent, but he refused to allow any of the Lords on the cliffs. It wasn't because he didn't actually trust them, it was that he didn't know them, and no one was welcome at the den with the cubs present.

Because he failed to mention any of it, Kagome damn near pissed her pants an hour later and about twenty miles from the cliffs when Sesshoumaru showed up. The look she gave Kouga upon the Inu Lord's arrival was enough to make the wolf prince chuckle, and when she asked 'what the fuck', he laughed outright.

Looking down at her, Kouga grinned and crossed his arms. "I promised you I would do whatever was necessary to find out if there was anything that could be done, and I meant it. He knows more about this shit than I do."

Bottom lip between her teeth, Kagome's eyes slanted to the Western Lord for a short moment before she looked back at Kouga. "I don't know about this."

Kouga also glanced toward Sesshoumaru. "Sometimes, Kagome, when you really want something," returning his attention to Kagome, "you have to step outside your comfort zone to get it."

Showing patience he wasn't normally known for, Sesshoumaru merely stood where he landed, curious as to why his presence was requested by the Eastern Lord, of all people. There wasn't a relationship between the East and West to speak of. It wasn't that he and the wolf were on bad terms, it was they were on no terms at all, and there had been no indication over the time the prince has been in charge of the Eastern region he had any desire to change that. What held his curiosity more than the vague request, was that the miko that had been stuck to his brother's side like glue for the last three years was also present when he had been told she was dead.

While Kouga wasn't ignoring the Inu Lord, his focus was far more on the Miko and trying to get her to calm down. Turning to face her fully, he used both hands to cup her face, silencing her near immediately. Once she was looking in his eyes, Kouga lowered his voice. "Do you want to go home?" When she nodded slightly with a 'yeah', he leaned in closer to her, his nose nearly touching hers. "If you want to go home, you're going to have to trust me. You know I won't allow anything to happen to you."

Licking her lips, Kagome gave what he said a quick thought, and while she knew Kouga wouldn't let anything happen to her, Sesshoumaru had actively proved the exact opposite... more than once. Breaking eye contact by slanting hers to the side, she played with her fingers for a short moment before she sighed. "I know, but..."

Cutting her off, Kouga clicked his tongue. "I guarantee very little you say is going to be all that surprising." At the shock that flashed through Kagome's eyes, he pulled back slightly, released her face, and shrugged as he crossed his arms. "It's a pack thing. While there sure as hell isn't any love between him and the mutt, as the elder, it's his job to know what you and your friends have been up to because once the mutt took on the responsibility of your protection, regardless of how shitty that protection may have been, he brought you into their pack, of which Sesshoumaru is ultimately responsible for. Whether he's always in the loop, or gets periodic updates that brings him up to speed every now and then like I do when it comes to my pack, I'm positive he already knows most of what Shippo told me the other day. I'm also positive he doesn't care."

While Kagome digested that bomb of a piece of information, her eyes cut over to the Inu Lord, question swirling in her eyes over the truth of what Kouga had just told her. She couldn't understand how, if he knew she was from a different time, he wouldn't have let on, even slightly, over the course of the last couple of years. What little she actually knew of the demon, and not just what she was told, her secret was something that could absolutely be used to someone's advantage, and she would have figured if anyone was going to try and do something like that, Sesshoumaru was near the top of that list. Not as high as Naraku, but high enough where it wasn't something she wanted him to know.

For Sesshoumaru, he met the Miko's gaze head on, still saying and doing nothing. The wolf was mostly right in his assessment. There was very little he didn't know about her, but it wasn't because she palled around with his brother. He knew what he knew about her because of what happened in his father's tomb. He made it his mission to find out what it was about her that allowed her to pull that fang from its resting place when neither he nor Inuyasha had been able to do so. When it came to the sub pack his little brother created, that was more unseen protection on his part than anything else. However, he was still kept in the loop by other demon's they crossed paths with, known or unknown to them, because one thing the wolf was correct about was, ultimately, the members of the group were his responsibility.

Seeing neither confirmation or denial from Sesshoumaru to the accusations that were just laid out, Kagome returned her eyes to Kouga, who was waiting for her to say something. Buying herself another moment or two to think, she reached up and scratched the back of her head, debating her options. Okay, so Sesshoumaru might have known about her and the fact she wasn't from this time. For all she knew, he's known that for years, and never once attempted to use it against her. He didn't let on he knew, if Kouga was right and he did, but him knowing didn't mean he would care, in the slightest, Inuyasha had ensured she could never return to where, or more specifically when, she actually belonged. Not only did it not mean he would care she was stuck 500 years before she was born, but it also didn't mean he would be slightly interested in helping to find out not only what it was Kikyo did, but if there was a way to undo it.

She knew she only had two options, involve Sesshoumaru or don't, but she wasn't sure which one would be better. It would certainly be amazing if he knew what she needed to do to get home, but at the same time, the Western Lord was just about the most unapproachable son of a bitch Kagome had ever fucking met. He scared the actual shit out of her, and she didn't have even one single memory involving that demon that didn't end with screaming and running for her life.

But... to be fair...

One of those times she was screaming because of Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru came to her defense when he didn't really have to. He stayed between her and Inuyasha's inner demon long enough for her to figure out how to get the hanyou to calm down and beat back the beast.

Kagome had learned quite a bit about canine demons over the curse of her stay at the Den, and from what she was able to conclude from that was, Kouga had made a valid point about this pack thing and Sesshoumaru extending his protections to her. She wouldn't go as far as to say he liked her, but it had been a while since the last time he tried to kill her.

In the end, it was more the air of indifference Sesshoumaru showed than anything else that had Kagome sighing with a nod of her head, her arms crossing loosely over her chest. "Okay." Looking back at Kouga, there was a sardonic smile on her lips. "Not like this can get any worse, right?"

Rolling his eyes, Kouga snorted. "That's my woman; always looking on the bright side of things."

Making a face at the statement, Kagome finally then turned to look fully at Sesshoumaru, though she made no move to get any closer as she looked up at him through her lashes. "If it works better for you, instead of me giving you the whole three year story, you tell me what you know, and I'll fill in the blanks."

For a long moment, Sesshoumaru regarded the miko before him, staying silent. When he did speak, it wasn't in response to what she said. "I trust somewhere in your recount you'll explain how it is you are still among the living when I was told you were dead."

It was almost like she was punched in the face the way she jerked back from the blunt statement. "Who told you I was dead?"

The inu's face looked as if the answer was obvious. "Inuyasha."

*X*

Sitting on a rock, Kagome could do nothing but blink by the time Sesshoumaru was done telling her what all he knew of her and her friends. She wasn't sure if she was more shocked at how much he actually knew, or if her shock was because of how much he spoke, but in the end, when she found her voice, she couldn't help what came out of her mouth. "Did you stalk us?"

Kagome also knew the moment it registered with him that, while he had never heard the word 'stalk' nor did he know exactly what it meant, he figured out it was a bad thing. He said nothing, but he didn't have to; his face said it clearly enough.

Scrubbing her face with her hands, Kagome then pressed the tips of her fingers into her temples as she looked at him. "How do you know all of that? I barely remember most of it, and I was physically there."

Leaning back against the stone behind him, Sesshoumaru crossed his arms. "A demon's memory is far more vast than that of a human. I have crystal clear memories of over two hundred years ago, however that is hardly of any consequence. I know what I know of you by simply being in the right place at the right time, and the rest came as it did from Myoga."

Jolting like she was kicked in the ass, Kagome's eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets at the mention of the flea demon. "Myoga? He reports to you?" At Sesshoumaru's nod, she huffed and crossed her arms. "I was under the impression he was to Inuyasha like what Jaken is to you. Ya know... the fact the flea is a little scaredy cat aside, of course."

Barely lifting a shoulder in an unnoticed shrug, Sesshoumaru looked at his claws. "Your impression of a situation, no matter how right, or in this case how very wrong," lifting his eyes to hers, "is hardly a concern of mine. My concern lies solely with the physical safety of those that are seen to be part of my pack. I know a great many things that have me questioning the mental safety and stability of those that followed the whelp, but so long as there is no issue with physical harm at his claws, I have always thought it best to stay out of the affairs of your little band of misfits."

Nose wrinkling at the very blunt explanation, Kagome grunted. "Fair enough."

Before the two words were fully out of her mouth, she already felt her throat closing up, knowing what she was going to have to once again acknowledge. It was never far from her mind. How could it be? Sure, there were times where she was able to focus on something else, and Kouga and the rest of the tribe did their best to keep her as occupied as they could, only Kouga knowing the reason why. It helped, sure, but it only helped in the moment. Once the moment was gone, the severity of her situation would come crashing back down, and she would excuse herself from the goings on until she was able to get her emotions back under control. She was finally past spending the majority of her time in tears, and she was able to sleep most of the night.

That, though, was almost exclusively because of Kouga.

He made her a lot of promises that first day he brought her to the cliff, and so far, he's kept every single one of them. The only one he hadn't was the only one he really couldn't, but Kagome supposed that was why Kouga made the decision to bring Sesshoumaru into the fray. He had promised her if there was a way to get her home he would find it, no matter what it was he had to do. He reiterated that promise not an hour ago when Sesshoumaru showed up.

Eyes slanting to the wolf himself, Kagome sighed as she slid her fingers into her hair, scratching at her scalp as she swallowed hard and cleared the lump from her throat. "Well, doesn't sound like you're missing all that much; just about the last month, but the only thing of importance happened a couple of days ago.

"We, my friends and I, were making our way toward that... you know the gorge that's like a half a day's walk from the eastern edge of Inuyasha's Forest?" At Sesshoumaru's nod, Kagome continued. "Well, we heard from some travelers about them seeing giant bugs down at the bottom of the gorge, and the first thing that came to mind was Naraku. So, we changed direction and headed that way. Since we were closer to the western border than the eastern side, it was going to take a couple of days to get there.

"We were still in the forest when we came under attack by some kind of bug. I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be; it was too distorted by the shard of the Shikon it swallowed. At the time I didn't notice, but looking back on it, it seemed like it took longer than it normally did for a demon with only one shard."

Pausing a moment, Kagome then shook her head, eyes lowering to the ground. "Right in the middle of the fight with this thing, Inuyasha just... ran away. He ran away when he was needed the most, leaving the rest of us to take care of whatever it was that ate a Shikon shard." Lifting her now distant eyes, she looked at Sesshoumaru. "I killed it, and we got the shard, so it didn't end as bad as it could have, I guess. The rest of us veered off course because when I shot the bug, it... exploded and we needed a bath. So, after we got cleaned up and Inuyasha still hadn't shown back up, we decided to wait for him at the village that's not far from the edge of the forest. When he still hadn't resurfaced by the time night fell, which was several hours later, we bedded down for the night, agreeing that we would continue on our way to the gorge in the morning, figuring he would be back by that point."

It was then her face went hard, but her eyes filled with tears. "He showed up when we were just outside the village, and he had Kikyou with him. That in itself wasn't all that shocking. I knew where he went when he left. It's pretty clear he forgets I can actually feel her when she's close. I guess that isn't really important, though. Um... I knew something was even more wrong than it looked just by his face. He asked what I was doing there, and when I said I was waiting for him to show back up, he started yelling about how I wasn't supposed to be there, that I was supposed to have gone home like I always did when he did something messed up."

It was then her voice cracked and the tears that had been welling up slipped from the corner of her eyes. Whether she still wasn't in a place to accept what happened yet, or she had it in her mind if she didn't say it it didn't happen, neither demon present knew, but the fact remained, as the seconds mounted and ticked by, it was becoming clear she wasn't going to be able to finish.

Sesshoumaru flicked his eyes to Kouga, who frowned deep with a sigh as he shook his head. "From what I gathered from the kit, while everyone was waiting for the mutt to resurface, he had his little bitch seal the well, effectively trapping Kagome here on this side while trying to trap her on the other side to avoid having to choose between a living person and a dead one."

There was an instant pulse in the Inu Lord's temple, and he was only barely able to stop himself from lifting a hand to rub it away. Being suspicious by nature, there was a part of him, though admittedly very small, that initially questioned the validity of the claims. At the same time, those suspicions were easy to quelsh by mere common sense. Ever since the day Inuyasha met the now dead Miko, the pup's common sense had become nearly non-existent. No matter how ridiculous, desperate, or impossible the dead one's ideas were, Inuyasha was drawn into whatever bullshit plan that female cooked up. Sesshoumaru wasn't sure it if was due to a misplaced sense of allegiance, guilt, or some twisted idea of love, but when that woman opened her mouth, Inuyasha went deaf to everyone and everything else.

Glancing back at the now ugly crying young miko, Sesshoumaru quietly clicked his tongue, though he said nothing for another few minutes. Instead, he allowed himself enough time to cover the situation from every angle, feeling that if there was a even the slightest possibility it wasn't what it looked it, he owed his brother, at the very least, the benefit of the doubt. However, there was very little doubt the Miko in front of him was willing to do the same. While he couldn't blame her for taking what was said at face value having no reason to question the truth of what she was told, Sesshoumaru, having no skin in the game, was able to see the situation from a distance, and ask the one question no one had thought to answer.

"Has the Miko had the opportunity to check the well?"

If he was shocked at the surprise that flashed through Kouga's eyes at the simple question, he didn't show it. Sesshoumaru also kept all accusation from his voice in the face of the sheer level of upset from the onna and also to avoid any escalation of the level of over-protectiveness the wolf prince was known to have for the woman. Nothing good could possibly come from upsetting the miko more than she was, nor was there anything to gain by pissing off her new protector.

Sesshoumaru merely nodded once at Kouga's response of 'no', and the short explanation that the little miko has been at the den since shortly after Inuyasha and the dead one made the declaration, but that was where the other two lords were also told to meet them if they were inclined to do so.

Turning his golden eyes on the onna herself, he made an internal groan at her wet eyes looking back at him with a level of hope he knew he needed to dim, and more than just slightly. Turning to face her fully, Sesshoumaru showed a level of humility and care he never showed anyone but his young human ward. Lacing his fingers between his thighs as he looked Kagome in the eyes, he kept his voice level yet commanding. "I do not ask such things to raise your hope, Onna. You must be prepared to find Inuyasha's words true. However, before time and very precious resources are spent looking for a way to undo what has been done, it is only wise to first ensure there is something needing undone."

He continued to look Kagome in the eyes, watching as her thoughts flashed through them as clearly as if she spoke them out loud. While somewhat loathed to do so, he would have to give the human credit where she deserved it. She tried very hard to squash the hope she was feeling at the prospect Inuyasha hadn't done what he said he did; that he wouldn't have actually done something so horrible to her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wap her mind around the fact that Inuyasha had intentionally done something like this, so she couldn't help the bubbling hope that he actually didn't. The inu could understand her position on the matter, but he didn't want those hopes too high because, while there may have been a small chance the well would allow the miko passage, there was still the question as to why the whelp would say otherwise if it wasn't true.

Allowing that thought to take hold of his own mind, Sesshoumaru made a mental note to not actually allow the miko to jump into the abyss of the Bone Eater's Well, because he couldn't shake the feeling that should she do so, something untoward would happen.

Kouga stood there watching Sesshoumaru and Kagome almost have a staring contest, his own thoughts swirling with Sesshoumaru's innocent question. No, it hadn't crossed his mind to check to see if the mutt was lying about the well, but at the same time, even with it out there now, he still wasn't sure it was a good idea. The dog hadn't seen how distraught Kagome was when he came across her in the forest, and he was pretty damn positive if she found out, without a shadow of a doubt the well was sealed, she would break completely.