Another's Name, But My Heart

By Lady of the Ink
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but you knew that . . .I hope. But I do own this plot and all the twists that it takes.

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General Reminder: Kagome will now be known as Kagome and Kikyo will mean the real Kikyo, no matter whose POV it is.

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Chapter Twenty-Six

Hungry Like the Wolf

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Kagome was having the best dream. She was surrounded by the warmth of Inuyasha's arms, with his breath hot and moist on her cheek. He shifted against her side with a low grumble. The new position brought his nose into contact with her neck and she shivered at the coldness of the appendage against her skin. His weight was heavy on her shoulder as he leaned closer in order to . . .lick her cheek?

Coming awake with a start, Kagome jackknifed into a sitting position. Although she knew that her eyes were wide open, they could have still been closed for all that she could see. She was completely enclosed in a thick, velvety darkness.

Her hands swept out ins semicircles from her sides as she struggled for any clue about her surroundings. There was the feeling of cool stone and loose rocks against her palms, adding to her instinctual impression that she wasn't in a tradition building. The open space around her seemed to empty and vast for that.

Her movements dislodged some of the debris and the skittering sound it caused echoed around her. As Kagome's hands continued their exploration, her fingertips grazed against something soft and bristly. At the same moment that she detected the warmth and rhythmic movements of a living thing, an animalistic rumble reached her ears.

The sound of the shifting rocks had seemed loud; it was a whisper compared to the scream that followed. If the sheer volume wasn't enough, the walls threw the sound back at her as an echo. Her voice was high and thready with fright, making it almost unrecognizable as it returned to her ears.

Digging her heels into the floor, Kagome moved her body backwards as fast as she could manage. She didn't need to know the exact cause of the noise to know that she wanted to be as far away from it as possible. Once she started moving, she didn't stop until her back made contact with something solid.

"I guess that answers the question of whether or not she's awake."

The voice was disturbingly familiar and came from above and behind her. Instantly reacting to it, Kagome twisted around to see who had spoken. As she feared, it was the man from the road. He stood directly behind her with his arms crossed arrogantly over his chest. Another figure stood on his left, apparently the one his comment had been directed at.

Just at the edge of her vision was the faint, flickering glow of fire. Its illumination didn't reach far, but it did travel enough to allow her to realize something. The solid thing behind her back wasn't a wall as she had thought, but the legs of her kidnapper!

Jerking away from him, Kagome found her eyes, finally adjusted to the darkness, directed back towards the spot where she had woken up. It was then that she was able to identify the source of her first fright as not one, not two, but an entire group of wolves huddled together.

Kagome's eyes widened as the knowledge that the carnivorous beasts had been lying beside her, on top of her even, as she slept sank in. Goosebumps raced across her skin as her muscles tightened and then twitched at the remembered sensation of coarse fur against her flesh. Her mouth opened, but before another scream could emerge, a calloused hand was slapped roughly over it.

"No more of that! One dose of your squawking was more than we needed!"

Still covering her mouth, the man easily pulled her to her feet. With the other man, whose features remained in shadow, following behind them, he led her to another area, quite far from the place where she had woken. While she was distracted from her fear and the light was far from bright, Kagome was able to learn a few things on the trip. She had been right in her assumption that she wasn't in a house or other kind of building. The rough stone walls were uneven and damp with condensation. The floor, such as it was, consisted of the same substance strewn with smaller rocks and dirt. If she had to guess, she'd say she was in a cave or a cave system.

Their final destination was brightly lit, a fact that Kagome appreciated. In addition to the fuzzy feeling brought on by her unplanned "nap", all the squinting she had been forced to do in order to see through the gloom was giving her a headache. It also helped that she was finally able to see both her captor and her surroundings in some degree of detail.

The taller of the two men accompanying her, the man from the road, made his way to a large boulder positioned on one side of the chamber. He sat in the makeshift chair, leaving Kagome to stand in front of him, feeling far to vulnerable for her tastes while she waited for him to speak.

She wasn't left in suspense for long. With a smirk curving his lips, he spoke directly to her for the first time since she had awoken. His voice was just as cool as she remembered it to be as he said a single sentence that did little to endear him in her mind. "You're Inuyasha's bitch."

Although his tone was matter-of-fact rather than insulting, Kagome felt her cheeks flush with anger and disgust. Her hands clenched at her sides as she glared at him coldly without replying. He didn't seem to mind or even notice, continuing with barely a pause. "It's because of that that I brought you here. You see, if it weren't for him, I would be even greater than I am now. He stole what should have been mine, and he has to pay for that. His rule over those lands will be a short one, but simply taking what I should have had all along isn't enough. I want him to suffer."

The infliction he put on the final word brought a chill to Kagome's spine. It was all it took to convince her that the man before her was very dangerous, and more than capable of living up to the promise in his words. "What do you want from me?" she managed to ask through teeth clenched to keep them from chattering.

The man stared at her and then burst into laughter. "What do you think I want from you? I want you to help me make him suffer. I want him to know what it feels like to have something belonging to him snatched from beneath his nose. By the time I'm through with him, your husband will wish he'd never heard of Kouga, leader of the wolves."

Several realizations occurred to Kagome at once. It took a few seconds for her mind to wrap around them all and force them into an order she could understand. The first was that this man, Kouga, as he had called himself, was a wolf demon. It explained both his similarities to Sesshomaru and the presence of so many of the animals themselves. Secondly, he planned to use her in some unknown way to exact revenge on Inuyasha. The third bit of information she filed away was that he had been planning to take Kikyo's lands, probably by force, but was beaten to the punch by Inuyasha.

Her final insight was the most important of them all. He had referred to Inuyasha as her husband, as was to be expected. Even the people who had been closest to them during their time together didn't yet know that their marriage was a farce. Since Kouga hadn't even used her name, she doubted he knew much more than what his senses told him. He had smelled Inuyasha on her on the path and drawn his assumptions from there.

The reminder of just what he might have figured out from her scent brought another blush to her cheeks, and not of anger this time. It was so soon after the event and it's consequential fallout that she couldn't suppress her responses to the memory. Embarrassment and shame warred for prominence within her each time it was mentioned or raised in her memory. She could only hope that her reaction would lessen in time.

Forcibly pushing both emotions aside, Kagome focused on the problem at hand. She had been kidnapped by a wolf demon who wanted to use her to get back at Inuyasha for taking the lands he'd had his own eye on acquiring. While he hadn't mentioned specifics on how he intended to use her, she didn't hold out much hope that it would be anything pleasant. His actions so far had been rough and primitive, and she thought it would be safe to assume that he would continue that trend.

The most simple truth she had at the moment was that she had to get away from him. Luckily for her, his own words had clued her in on how. She would tell him the truth, from the moment she had met Kikyo to the time when she could no longer keep the lie going. Once she did, Kouga would be forced to see that she meant nothing to Inuyasha, and that holding her captive would do him no good in the end.

Unconsciously mirroring the words she had used in her letter, Kagome began her tale. "I'm not who you think I am . . ." She spared herself no details, forcing herself to mention even the more humiliating truths to the stranger before her. Only the knowledge that it might well gain her freedom or even save her life allowed her to get to the end. When she finished, she looked Kouga full in face waited for his response.

She had braced herself for everything from anger with physical ramifications to simple disappointment. Her body was tensed in preparation for both a blow or to run if she was granted her freedom. In the silence that stretched after her final word, she imagined numerous outcomes and forced herself to be ready for any of them.

When Kouga finally reacted, it wasn't in any of the manners that she had been expecting. There was no anger, in fact, no major negative emotion at all. He raised his head to meet her gaze, revealing an odd sentiment in his eyes. Since it was so far outside the range of responses that she had been expecting, it took Kagome a moment to recognize it as . . .admiration? Rising so quickly she was startled into taking a step back, Kouga moved closer. Her hands were soon caught between his as he stared down at her in silence. It only took one experimental tug to know she wouldn't be able to free herself until he decided to let go.

Her nerves had jumped into overdrive before he finally spoke. Gone was the coldness and arrogance of before. In their place was an air of respect and almost wonder. His voice was soft, more rumble than words.

"Your loyalty to your family is the same as mine. They come first, no matter what. I never thought a human would be capable of matching my view so closely. The sacrifice you made, the strength of character you have, your beauty . . . They all make it clear there is only one thing I can do.

"I'll make you my mate."