"Absolutely not," Koga said as he folded his arms and stared the couple down. "Are you two out of your fucking minds?"
"But, Koga…"
The wolf prince growled, "And what if, as you predict, something bad does happen to you, Yuka? How would I explain it to my wife? You know how much she cares about her friends."
"And I care about her, too," Yuka shouted. "What would you do, Koga? Huh? If it was your friend who wanted to do something that hadn't been tested? Would you stand by and just let them do it and hope for the best? Or would you put your own life on the line to see if it worked first?"
"That's different," Koga said with a shake of his head. "I'm…"
"What? The 'leader'?" she retorted. "What makes you so much different than me? What makes your willingness to sacrifice yourself so much better than mine? Or less dangerous?"
Koga snarled as he jabbed a thumb into his chest, "I know the dangers. I understand the dangers. You forget, little girl, I've been through a hellavua lot more than you have and have a hellavua lot more experience. And, yes, I am the leader. I didn't get my position by letting my subordinates do dangerous shit."
"I'm not your subordinate!" Yuka yelled, her face turning red. "You are not my boss or my parent. You are my best friend's husband. My friend, which I'm trying to keep from getting hurt. If you really loved her, like you claim, you'd let me do it."
The wolf prince dropped his hands to his sides and glared at her. He could not and would not let this girl put herself in harm's way. If she was worried about Kagome's safety, he'd ask Inuyasha if the potion had been tested. But he could not allow Yuka to risk her life.
With all the calm he could muster, Koga said, "My answer is still 'no.' You can throw a tantrum all you want, but I will not allow it. And if you think about going to Inuyasha, don't. By the time you do, I will have already spoken to him."
Yuka gave a frustrated screech through her teeth. Kizoku winced at the sound, but Koga did not budge. Then Kizoku came up with an idea. "What if she were mated?"
Koga hesitated. "What?"
Yuka paused as well as Kizoku explained, "If one of our pack mated with her, then Kagome would want Yuka to be immortal as well, right? We could get someone to mate her, and then give her the potion. If all works out well, we can give Kagome the good news. If it doesn't, well… We can still tell Kagome, but let her know that Yuka had done it to be with her mate."
Yuka's eyes widened. That was not part of the plan and Kizoku knew that. Besides, who in their right mind would mate with Yuka?
Koga mulled it over in his mind. Then, with a hardened expression, he said, "Only if you mate her."
Kizoku froze. "But…"
"It'd have to be you, Kizoku," Koga growled. "I will not have some random wolf mate her and fall in love with her only to have her die."
Yuka frowned. "Wait. So, you'd let me take the potion if Kizoku mated with me?" she asked, uncertainly.
For a moment, Koga neither said anything nor moved. Then, he sighed as he lifted his hands. "If Kizoku mates with you, then there will be little choice in the matter," he told her. "Kagome will only want your happiness. And mated with Kizoku, you'd have that. But then you'll have the burden of mortality to contend with. Kagome wouldn't want that, so she would agree that taking the potion would be the best course for you."
Neither Yuka nor Kizoku liked this idea and Kizoku was the first to protest it. "Koga, you know how I feel about humans. I have plans to marry another wolf demon, not…"
"But you have no problem fucking a human," Koga sneered. "Don't think I am ignorant of what's been going on between the two of you. And you have no current engagement. If you want this potion to be tested, then you have to mate with her. Only after the two of you are mated will I allow it."
With that, Koga left Kizoku's home and the couple. He needed to talk to Inuyasha.
Yuka stared at the door in anger. She knew the demon was not going to return and tell them that he changed his mind. "What does he mean, exactly?" she asked.
Kizoku looked up from the bottle of beer he had been drinking. "What do you mean?"
Yuka sniffed. "Koga. He said you would have to 'mate' with me. What is that? What does it mean?"
The wolf blanched. "It's…" he started. He thought about it for a moment. "It's sort of like a wedding, I guess. It's where we bind ourselves to a specific person for however long we wish. It makes it so our children are legitimate. A mated pair do not… reproduce with anyone else."
She stared at him. He took another pull from his bottle before he continued, "Most demons mate with a particular person for a certain time and then end the 'marriage' to pursue others. Wolves, however, mate for life. We don't have an option to end the mating or find someone else. Once we've found our mate… that's it. We mate with them, have children with them, and, with any luck, grow old with them."
Yuka frowned. "So, if you were to mate with me…?"
Kizoku shook his head and closed his eyes. "I like you, Yuka. Really, I do. I just…" He sighed. "That's not how I imagined my life."
She raised an eyebrow. "What? Being mated with a human? What if that human were immortal?" she questioned. "What if she had the same lifespan as you?.. Or do you just not wish to mate with me?"
The wolf looked away from her. "I never promised…"
Yuka snarled at him. "I never said you did!" she snapped. She took his hands into her own. "I'm going to ask you the same thing I asked Koga. If it were him. If it were a matter of his life or death. What would you do?"
He glared at her. "That's different," he growled. "Koga is my brother. My blood brother."
She tilted her head slightly. "Ok, fair enough. But what if it were Ginta or Katzu? Or what about that wolf that lives down the street that I don't know the name of?" She sighed as she dropped his hand. "I don't have any sisters of my own, so in a lot of ways, Kagome is my sister. I would do anything for her. Well, her, Ayumi, or Eri… I don't expect you to understand…"
As she turned away from him, he touched her shoulder. He pulled her back around to look into her eyes. "Do you… Do you want to mate with me?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
She gave him a half smile. "Not particularly," she admitted. "I was probably the one that opposed Kagome's marriage to Koga the most. I'm not really keen on this whole 'marry the demon' thing. But, like I said, I'd do anything for her."
He nodded and pulled away from her. She followed him into the living room where the two sat on the couch. "I know why he's doing this," Kizoku said. "Koga thinks that if I mate with you, I won't want you to take this potion. He thinks I'd be too concerned about what would happen to you. Or, better yet, that I wouldn't want you to take the potion because I wouldn't want to spend an eternity with you."
"Do you?" she asked.
He shrugged as he drained the last of his beer. "Do you even know what's involved in a mating ritual?" he questioned.
She rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. We have sex," she replied.
He chuckled as he shook his head. "No, we don't," he told her. She looked at him curiously as he clarified, "Mating is a binding of the souls and bodies. When we mate, we have to do so in our true forms. While production of a child is not necessarily the end result, we don't use things like condoms or birth control. And if any such product is already in your body, it is rendered useless."
"Wait," she interrupted holding her hand up. "Let me get this straight. I have to fuck a wolf? And you may or may not get me pregnant in the process?"
He nodded and she moved off the couch. He watched her as she paced the length of the coffee table. After a few seconds, she stopped and met his brown eyes. "Does it hurt?" she asked.
When he shook his head, she continued her pacing for a little bit longer. "If it makes any difference," he added, "it is really quick. In my true form, I cannot control my demonic instincts and the mating does not take long. Of course, it's not really enjoyable, either."
She pinched her lips together as she stopped and stared at him again. "And there's absolutely no way we'll be able to convince Koga out of this, right?"
He shook his head. "Once Koga has made a decision, that's it."
She took a deep breath, nodded, and said, "Ok, then. Let's do this."
He raised an eyebrow. "Who said I would be a willing participant?" he asked. "I'm not sure I'm ready to spend the rest of eternity with a human."
Yuka put her hands on her lips and gave him a smoldering stare. "Baby, you know I rock your world at night," she growled enticingly. "Imagine me doing that every night for the rest of your life."
His decision made, Kizoku smirked. How could he say "no" to that offer?
Author's Note: Typical male. Always thinking below the belt.