Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Legend:

'……' thoughts

"……" speech

Enter the Wolf's Den

By: wolf demoness

Chapter Eight: Koga, the young leader of the wolf demon tribe

After Ginta had tightly bound Inuyasha's wounds Koga ran until he reached his den. He ran for a little over a day and a half, at full speed, and covered over thirty leagues. When he reached the mountain pass that lead to his den he ran past the sentries stationed over the cliffs not willing to stop and identify himself. He'd probably get intruder reports from his guards later, but that could be dealt with. True to form shortly after he sped past he saw a wolf running from the cliffs in toward the den's center to raise the guard. Koga made a mental note to reward the men on duty in this area for the quick discharge of their duties. Koga ran past the cave in which the majority of the wolves spent their day and all pack matters were discussed in Council with the elders.

Koga was a relatively young wolf. He had taken control of the tribe at a younger age than any other Alpha in recent memory. As his first official action he'd organized a Council of elders to advise him on matters of pack rule. He'd selected a number of knowledgeable wolves, both male and female, and organized a system of meetings and duties for each of them, based on their personal strengths and intellectual achievements. For instance Koga put Makoto, a venerable male elder who had lost the use of his sword arm in a battle over six hundred years ago, in charge of the training of the young wolf demons. Makoto, though he could no longer wield a sword with the accuracy he'd enjoyed in his youth, was a skilled teacher and under his tutelage the pack began to produce stronger warriors than ever before. In the old system a warrior unable to fight for the pack was seen as useless and though the pack cared for the disabled warriors they were widely acknowledged as burdens on the able-bodied wolves. When Koga organized the Council he was upsetting several thousand years of established tradition. At first the wolves in the pack questioned his ability to lead as the pack's Alpha. No other Alpha had ever asked the opinions of the pack before giving orders. At first it was seen as a sign of weakness, but after a few years, as the pack grew stronger, the wolves embraced the Council.

Koga was no fool, he knew that his strengths lay in his abilities as an administrator. Yes, he was the fastest wolf in the pack and a strong warrior in his own right, but he was rash and impulsive. He knew that he had a quick temper and though he tried to keep it in check he was quick to anger. Though when angered he was not malicious or dangerous in the least, save when the lives of his pack depended on it. The young wolf surrounded himself by loyal wolves who would balance him out. That's not to say that Koga took everything to the Council, he was after all the Alpha and as such he had his pride. He would never have become the Alpha if he weren't able to rule his people. The Council's main purpose was to give the pack some say in the actions of their leader.

Most transfers of power in the wolf demon tribe stemmed from disagreements between the pack and the Alpha male. When the Alpha stopped ruling in a way that the pack accepted another wolf, typically a youth, rose up to challenge the Alpha. Eventually one of the challengers would kill the Alpha and take his place. Koga himself had deposed the former Alpha of his tribe. However in an unexpected act of mercy, that defined his rule over the wolf demons, Koga had let the dethroned ruler live. He was later forced to kill the old wolf when he stole one of the jewel shards the pack had worked so hard to collect in order to defend themselves from the Birds of Paradise. The old wolf intended to use the shard to increase his own power and take control of one of the northern packs, before coming back to settle his score with Koga. It was an unforgivable crime, to try to gain power for oneself at the cost of the pack. Regrettably Koga was forced to end the demon's life after he tracked him down through several human villages. After seeing the mistakes made by the former Alpha, Koga wanted to make sure that the pack had some share in their own governance so that, hopefully, he wouldn't have to fight to keep his position any time soon. Disagreement within the pack weakened the pack and Koga knew that in these times the last true pack of the wolf demons needed to stay strong in order to survive. Though his hope for the future began to wan after he'd met Kagome and she'd never heard of wolf demons. That a Miko wouldn't know of his people saddened him. In five hundred years, in his own lifetime, Koga would see his people pass from life into myth and legend. But, Koga did not believe in fate and he'd resolved to do everything in his power to preserve his pack, his family.

Running past the Council hall and leaping across the small river that provided the pack's water Koga came to the hut of the pack's healer and midwife, a she-wolf by the name of Yuuka. "Yuuka!" the Alpha called out as he approached her home.

"Koga?" Yuuka called stepping out of her hut. "What's happened?" Yuuka rushed forward to walk beside Koga as he entered her home.

"He's been injured by a demon boar," Koga said as he entered her home and set Inuyasha down on the table Yuuka inspected the injured pack members on. Yuuka had been the pack's healer when Koga was a young cub. He had fond memories of Yuuka patching him up on this table. There was even a chip in the wood where Koga had thrust his claws when Yuuka had set his broken leg as a youth. Koga was one of those children that could never sit still. Energetic and curious, Koga was also one of Yuuka's most frequent patients, especially when he'd gone through that awkward phase where he grew so quickly that his center of balance changed almost daily. Yuuka at one point even congratulated him on staying out of her hut for just over a month. She had a great sense of humor about the whole thing. All things considered Koga loved Yuuka, he would probably even have mated with her if things were different. As it was Yuuka had mated and lost her husband early in her life. As such she would never take a mate again and so she'd never have any children. A crime of sorts, Yuuka loved children. Koga loved her like an older sister.

"Get out of here you're finished." Yuuka waved a young cub with a sling on his arm out of the hut. She quickly began to peel back the half demon's bandages. "Kuso," she swore softly. "Help me strip him. I need to get at these without his clothes in the way." Yuuka was perhaps the only wolf in the pack that would blatantly order the Alpha around in his own den, but Yuuka never had much use for authority anyway. As the two went about removing the silver haired demon's clothes Yuuka continued to ask questions. "How long has the poison been in his system?"

"Almost two days now."

"Not good. Not good," she muttered to herself. "Get me some water, there's a bucket over there. Take…" Yuuka turned and looked around the small room until she found what she was looking for. "…that bundle of herbs," she pointed to a small thong from which wilted flowers and stems were suspended from her ceiling, "and wash them in the river." Koga hurried to do what Yuuka asked. First washing the blood from his hands then filling the pail with river water and washing out the herbs. When he got back into the hut Yuuka was inspecting Inuyasha's belly wound. "Bring me a bowl of water then boil the rest."

"Here." Koga gave Yuuka a bowl filled with the water he'd just collected and a clean cloth from her cabinet. Yuuka began to wash the wounds. "How bad is it?"

"Bad bad."

"Is there a good bad?" Koga grumbled sullenly.

"Mmmhm. Good bad, I can fix. Bad bad is out of my hands. Is that water boiling yet?"

Koga moved over to the pot of water over the fire. "What should I do with it?"

"Drop half of those herbs in the pot, then crush the rest and give them to me." Koga quickly started the herbs boiling and retrieved a mortar and pistil to begin crushing the remainder of the herbs. Once the herbs were ground into a coarse powder he set the mortar aside. "You could have become a healer you know, Koga? I'll never understand why you had to go off and become an Alpha."

"And drive you out of a job, Yuuka? Never. Besides, I like being an Alpha. I'll take that over hanging out around sick people any day."

"To each his own I suppose. Are you done with those herbs?" Koga gave Yuuka the mortar. She reached in and scooped a handful out of the bowl. Yuuka sprinkled the powder in Inuyasha's wounds. "He lost a lot of blood didn't he?"

"Yes. Ginta, Hakkaku, and I only found him by the trail of blood he'd left behind him. The snow we dug him out of was bright red."

"Alright," Yuuka sighed and brushed some strands of hair from her face. "Wait ten minutes then take that pot off the stove and start a new one with the herbs in the top drawer of that cabinet. We'll see if we can get some of that down his throat to help him replace his blood." She went back to tending the half demon's wounds while Koga watched her.

"Yuuka. Is there any chance?"

"There's always a chance, Koga. He just doesn't have a good one."

******

Koga took Inuyasha to his home to recover. As the pack Alpha Koga was given the largest hut in the den. He had several guest bedrooms one of which he put Inuyasha in. Yuuka's hut wasn't equipped to deal with a full time patient so Koga moved them both into his home. Yuuka was given a room next to her patient, which Koga often had to order her to go to so that she'd get any rest at all. The hanyou ran a high fever for days. Though that wasn't normally cause to celebrate Yuuka assured Koga that it meant that the half demon was fighting the poison. She also swore that Inuyasha must be even more stubborn than Koga was to stay alive so long after being exposed to that much poison.

Hakkaku and Ginta arrived at the den three days after Koga arrived with the silver haired demon. They'd run all through the day and late into the night every night until they arrived home. Koga gave them both time off from guard duty. Hakkaku and his mate took their cubs to see Hakkaku's brother, a lone wolf who lived in the mountains to the south of the pack. Ginta stayed with Koga. He wasn't invited of course; he just showed up at Koga's door and threw his things in an empty room. Ginta was one of Koga's oldest friends and his second in command. He sat with Koga through the night when the other demon had trouble sleeping. Koga felt sick. He was sick to death. His woman, his chosen had left her friend and protector to die. He couldn't stand it. That she could do something so cruel. He tried to rationalize it. 'It was a dark night she might not have seen that the mutt was injured,' he told himself. 'But hadn't she said she'd talked to him? Inuyasha was dying, he wouldn't have engaged in a merry little conversation and forgotten to mention that he was poisoned and bleeding to death.'

Koga felt lost. He thought he loved Kagome, but he couldn't stand what she had done. Inuyasha was a member of her pack. How could she abandon a pack member to die? He hated it. If any member of his pack had done what she'd done he would have exiled them without a second thought. Ginta was a source of comfort. He just waited for his friend to decide that he needed to talk and kept him company when he needed it. But Koga didn't want to talk. He knew what Ginta would say. The pack would tell him to find a more suitable mate, a better woman. They'd never liked Kagome. They had merely tolerated her because he had announced his intent to mate with her. The entire pack would be relieved if her renounced his intentions. They were worried that his children would be tainted by her human blood.

In some ways the wolf demon pack was very progressive. Age between mates wasn't a factor in choice and neither was gender. As long as both parties were willing and the relationship wasn't incestuous it was fine with the pack. Wolves mate for life. There was only ever that one person in their life so wolf demons always mate for love. Those in the pack were great believers in love; each person was allowed to find and mate with their chosen. Some wolves never mated, fearing that if they settled for anything less than that one person they'd be unable to be with them once they found them. The Alpha male was the only member of the pack that had any restrictions placed on him. He had to produce children for the good of the pack because, even though the position of Alpha was not hereditary, any male that achieved that position was considered too important to the gene pool to remain childless. The Alpha had to mate with a young woman of childbearing age, preferably a young she-wolf demon, but occasionally the Alphas mated with other breeds of demons, not wanting to deprive any young she-wolves of the chance to mate with their chosen. There was no law against the Alpha mating with a human, but it wasn't considered a good thing either. The point of the Alpha producing children was to strengthen the pack. What use were hanyous? They were notoriously weak and had severely shortened life spans.

Koga would often go to sit with the half demon at night. When he'd finished his meetings with the Council and every matter the pack needed his judgement on had been settled, he would go home and he watched as Inuyasha fought the fever, as he slept deep and long. The hanyou never woke whenever Koga came into the room. He never woke when anyone came into the room. He just lay on the bed lost in-between life and death, a silent testament to the betrayal Koga felt. It was strange, but he felt a bond with the half demon. They'd both loved Kagome, and she'd betrayed them both. It seemed he had a lot in common with the hanyou. If it hadn't been for Kagome he might even have befriended the half demon. He'd never hated Inuyasha; he'd just been angry that Inuyasha had killed his pack mates as they fed on some villagers, when they'd first met. However, Koga had banned the consumption of human flesh after he met Kagome. It wouldn't do to have his pack members eat his mate's relatives. In an effort to better understand his chosen's people he even spent some time in the local villages and he had come to appreciate the humans in the area. They were especially useful for trade purposes and the pack had come to enjoy the market days he arranged with the local humans. Some of their silks were absolutely stunning and the weapons certain villages produced were of superb quality. Later on Koga had only been protective of his chosen and begrudged the fact that she'd rather travel with the hanyou on some sacred mission than come with him to be his wife and the alpha female of his tribe. She was spurring both his love and the great honor he'd offered her, she'd be the equal of any human queen, but she'd rather sleep on the ground and run around on a holy mission. Women were incomprehensible.

******

"I don't think that the movements of the Kitsune should bother us."

"But they're encroaching on our borders!" Koga listened while two of his councilors argued back and forth over the movement of a small band of Kitsune scouts had reported coming in from the south.

"But Osamu, the Kitsune are a strictly non-violent species. They've never been aggressive towards us. Why I bet that if we send a few men to politely ask them to move on, they will."

"After trying to seduce the scouts," Ginta whispered in Koga's ear causing Koga to try to cover a snort of amusement with a coughing fit.

"Are you alright, Koga?"

"Yeah, fine, Saburou. Please, go on." Koga smiled trying to look interested. The loquacious old wolf began to draw in his breath to continue just when they were interrupted.

"KOGA!"

"Yuuka! What is it?" Koga stood from his seat on the Council floor.

"It's Inuyasha. You must come," she panted out, winded after her run from Koga's home to the Council chamber.

"He's gotten worse?" Koga asked with some trepidation. The half demon's fever had broken three days ago, but he still hadn't woken. As far as any of them knew Inuyasha hadn't so much as moved or opened his eyes in two and a half weeks. Despite Yuuka's best efforts the demon was loosing weight, his muscles were loosening, and he was beginning to grow weak as only protracted illness can do to a body.

Yuuka shook her head. "You have to see this," she said.

"Ginta, take over. Please excuse me gentlemen," he said then nodded in the direction of his female Councilors, "Ladies." Koga bowed to the assembled Council and followed Yuuka from the room. It was a dark and moonless night that the two wolves hurried through to get to Koga's home.

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A/N: My…my…my I wonder what could be happening…^_^ Heheheheheheheh. By the way I've sort of 'westernized' the wolf demon's dwellings, given them doors and raised beds and such, etc. etc.