Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me.

Chapter Fourteen: Prince of Wolves

Three days were spent in the next village. A doctor was found who would treat the wounded, but only when approached by Miroku. Inuyasha was glad that they had found the lecher. The humans would not answer him or Shippo, they would only cry "Demons!" or "Be gone!" or "Help, monsters!" or other such annoying and rather insulting comments.

On the first day the doctor healed Kagome at the clinic. The group found a place for them to rest at an inn after they left the clinic. The second and third day Inuyasha refused to let her leave her bed despite her protests that she felt fine, growling at any who tried to make him leave. Shippo was allowed to stay, but only under threat of death if he disturbed the girl at all. He had Miroku run errands and talk to villagers.

On the third day, Miroku finally found some useful information. He hurried back to the inn and opened the door to Kagome's bedroom. Technically they all shared the room, but it was understood that it was Kagome's room. The cramped quarters made the monk actually miss sleeping outdoors.

"It appears…"

Before Miroku could say another word a hand was clamped around his mouth. He felt the demonic aura behind him, threatening him subtly.

"If you wake her up, I will kill you."

Miroku nodded in understanding. They would wait until she woke up to begin talking again. No one argues with an over-protective dog demon.

Luckily they didn't have long to wait. Though Miroku suspected that Inuyasha was holding him personally responsible for waking the girl up. He made a mental note to himself to not be caught alone with the demon anytime in the near future.

"Find out anything?" Kagome managed to ask between yawns.

Miroku cleared his throat, trying to not be intimidated by the golden eyed scowl. Shippo was sending him very similar looks from the foot of the bed, not quite as effective but still a bit unsettling.

"It appears that there have been wolf demons sighted to the north."

"Koga!" exclaimed Kagome with a happy clap of the hands.

Miroku nodded, smiling at her exuberance. It was good to see her feeling good again. It will be even better to have the two sharp toothed companions finally in a good mood again. "I believe so. I have also learned that I apparently cannot purchase supplies since I have no where to put them."

Kagome giggled as she pushed the covers off of her body and swung her legs off the bed. "So… I'm the only one who can shop?"

"It appears that way."

She grinned. "So if anyone wants me to buy something special… say like… RAMEN… then they have to ask nicely?"

Three young men cringed.

"Even say the word 'please' I bet." They didn't acknowledge her, but that was ok. She was in a very good mood. She was finally feeling well, she just learned she had the upper hand when purchasing supplies, and they were going to find their fifth teammate soon. "Let's get going!"

Although Inuyasha tried to get the group to stay for one more day to give Kagome more rest, he was out-voted. He was a little grumbly about not getting his way, but was in a slightly better mood when they discovered that the store in that town had a new flavor of Ramen. Being the astute dog demon that he was, he noticed Kagome's disappointment in the store.

"Oi, wench, what's wrong?"

"Stop calling me wench, dog boy. Who said anything was wrong?"

He stood closer to her as Shippo and Miroku poked throught the store. "I can tell, it's a demon thing. Now spill it." He kept his voice low.

She sighed. "It's stupid."

"Don't care."

Blushing, Kagome scanned the items available for purchase. "I was really hoping for some shampoo or some chocolate."

Inuyasha burst out laughing, causing Miroku and Shippo to cast him curious glances. Kagome just glared at him.

She whispered, "Told ya it was stupid."

Inuyasha put his elbows on the counter and put his head in his hands, turning a little to look at her. He was relieved. "I'll get you all the chocolate you can cram down your gullet when we get out of this stupid game."

The smile she gave him nearly melted his heart, but not in the same way that the wasp's poison had threatened to a few days ago.

"Is that a promise?" It wasn't the most romantic offer that she had ever had, but it was still sweet all the same.

He grinned.

"Stop flirting and buy the stupid supplies!" Shippo jumped between them and shot Inuyasha an evil glare before turning big green baby eyes and a sweet sing song voice on Kagome. "Do they have any pocky?"

Inuyasha glared at the kit as Kagome smiled and patted his head, explaining that this shop didn't sell any sweets. Manipulative little punk. When we get out of this game and he actually looks his age, we're going to have to have a little talk. However, Inuyasha knew that as long as Shippo actually looked like a child, Kagome would have a difficult time seeing him as anything but a child. Manipulative stupid game.

After the potions shop, the group went over to the weapons shop, but found nothing in their price range that they wanted. Miroku had also found a shop that sold food. Much to the demons dismay, Kagome picked some vegetables, cheese, and bread. Still no sigh of sweets. She tried not to think about how they were stored in her back without spoiling. One more thing to chalk up to game magic, she guessed.

Kagome clapped her hands together and walked with a bounce in her step. Soon their whole group would be back together. First Koga, then they would find Sango. "I can't wait to find Koga!"

"I can…" mumbled Shippo and Inuyasha in unison.

Two hours later of walking uphill, Kagome's enthusiasm had been dampened quite a bit. Too bad no one on the team had any teleportation skills that could be used. Or wings. They were tired and sweaty and slightly dehydrated. But they only had a few more bottles of water left from their shopping expedition, and they wanted to use it sparingly.

Halway up the mountain Kagome felt the familiar feeling in her stomach.

"Shards are nearby! And they are coming quickly!" She looked around. The group was walking along a very narrow path up the mountain, too narrow to walk in anything but single file. In fact, in some areas they would have to walk with their backs against the side of the mountains and they would be forced to shuffle along sideways.

"How fast?" asked Inuyasha, looking around for their opponent. "Do you hear the music? It seemed that in addition to being the only one to shop and retrieve anything from her backpack, Kagome was the only one who could hear the music when enemies were about to attack.

"No. No music. It's different from other fights. There's no music at all, but I can feel the shards approaching." She glanced nervously at the path. "How are we going to fight without falling to our deaths? It's a long way down you know."

Before anyone could answer her, Kagome found herself swept up into the arms of a tornado. Dizzy and disoriented, Kagome looked up at her kidnapper. Ice blue eyes searched her own.

"Koga?"

Happily Kagome threw her arms around her friend. She was so glad that they had found him. Or he found them. Either way, she was glad to have her teammate back.

"We've been looking all over for you!" After barely a moments hesitation, the wolf demon returned Kagome's embrace.

At first the wolf demon didn't recognize her. He stopped his race up the hill and looked down at the group of cursing young men nearly half a mile below them. After laughing at them, Koga turned his attention back to the girl still in his grasp. He cocked his head to one side.

"I know you."

Kagome smiled. "Yes, of course you do, Koga. It's me! Kagome!"

The young miko was a bit uncomfortable since he had not yet let her go. She didn't want to seem rude pulling away, but she couldn't very well keep on hugging him. So she let her arms drop, hoping he would drop his. No such luck. In fact, he seemed to just hold her even closer.

Closing his eyes, Koga dropped his head to her neck took a deep breath. If Kagome didn't know any better, she would say that he was trying to memorize her smell. She felt the shards presence. Looking down she saw a glow. He had jewel shards in his legs. She wondered how he got a hold of them. Surely he had an interesting story behind that, hopefully over dinner he would share it.

"We've been looking for you. Inuyasha, Shippo, and Miroku are with me too."

The wolf demon glared at the group who was rapidly catching up to them. He growled at them and ordered his men to attack. That was when Kagome noticed the pack of wolves and wolf demons at the top of the hill. She screamed to warn her friends, but it was too late. They were under attack.

"What are you doing? They are our friends!"

Koga gave her a smirk and held her tightly. "You are mine, Kagome."

"No, Koga…"

"You are my woman. I won't let them take you from me."

Kagome tried to push her would be suitor away from her, but it was no good. "Look, Koga, I'm flattered, really… but I'm not your woman."

"I am Koga, Prince of the Wolf Demon Tribe, and I have claimed you as my own."

"Uh... Koga…" She looked again into his eyes, and gasped. He truly believed that he was the prince of the tribe. "Koga… this is just a game. You're playing a character. Your name is Koga Wolfe, you're a college student working on a degree in English. Remember? Please remember!" she pleaded with him.

For a moment he looked confused, then he looked angry. "Don't try to confuse me with your words, woman. I am Koga, Prince of the Wolf Demon Tribe."

"No… you're not. There are no demons. This is only a game. You are a college student who plays online games for fun. You have a girlfriend named Ayame. You…"

"SHUT UP!" His grip on her arms tightened painfully, claws digging into her skin. "I am the prince of the wolf demons. You are MINE! And I will have REVENGE on that DOG for slaughtering half of my tribe. My FAMILY!"

"Who? Inuyasha?"

Just as the first drop of blood trickled down her arm from where Koga had accidentally cut her, she heard a thunderous cry from below. In awe she watched as Inuyasha flew from below the edge of the cliff and landed in front of them. His golden eyes blazed as they scanned her, looking for the blood she knew he could smell. When he saw the blood streaking down her arm he flew into a rage.

Koga threw the girl from him as Inuyasha advanced. Instead of landing on the hard dirt, Kagome found herself in another man's arms, looking up into friendly violet eyes.

"Thanks, Miroku."

"Anytime." Quickly he set her up on her feet and resumed his fight against the wolves.

Kagome took a shaky breath then erected a barrier to keep the wolves from getting any closer to her friends. Her eyes were shut tight, concentrating on keeping the barrier up. Snarling and growling was coming from the two fighting demons. She could hear fists landing and claws tearing.

This isn't right. They are friends. We are all friends!

"STOP!" she cried out.

The fighting continued. Opening her eyes she glared at Inuyasha. Using the rest of her energy she cast another barrier on him, making it impossible for him to touch the wolf demon or to be touched.

"Hiding behind a woman are you, mutt?" the wolf demon taunted.

"I'm going to kill you!"

Koga touched the barrier, only to be shocked by it. He gave Inuyasha a smirk. "I will be back for what's mine." With a curt call to the wolves, Koga disappeared in a swirling cloud of dust.

The barriers fell.

Inuyasha was beyond angry. Koga had tried taking Kagome. Koga had HURT Kagome. She was BLEEDING because of HIM. And she had the NERVE to protect him! His blood was screaming at him to hunt down the wolf demon and to kill him slowly and painfully. If he had been able to use his sword outside of battle, then the wolf would surely laying in front of him in pieces. Many many pieces.

"KAGOME!" he yelled, intent on telling her once and for all just who was in charge of this little expedition. He turned to find Kagome laying in Miroku's arms, once again unconscious. Within a heartbeat he was by her side.

"Is she ok? Is she hurt? Quit touching her you pervert!" Inuyasha took Kagome away from Miroku with a snarl.

Attempting to hide a chuckle, Miroku put his best offended face on before answering the dog demon. "She was protecting us with her barrier. Then she created a second barrier to keep you and our mutual friend from killing one another. I believe that she used too much energy. She is unhurt, merely sleeping."

Shippo hopped up onto Inuyasha's shoulder and peered down at Kagome. "Do you think she will be okay?"

"Don't be stupid." Inuyasha held her close and stalked away towards a tree with shade.

Everything was dark, though a little fuzzy around the edges. Kagome moaned. She felt soooo tired and a little achy. She wanted to sleep, but couldn't seem to get comfortable enough. It felt as if someone had sucked all the energy out of her body. Even though she was uncomfortable, she might have been able to get some sleep if it wasn't for the voices arguing loudly.

"We must wake her up, Inuyasha!"

The following curse words made Kagome wince. "I TOLD you that we are letting her sleep, monk!"

"We can reach the next village by dark if we wake her up and start on her way."

"No!"

"Stop being so unreasonable, Inuyasha. I'll wake her up if …. OUCH! Did you just bite me, Shippo?"

Kagome giggled. She couldn't help it. She opened her eyes to see Inuyasha sitting at her side with his arms folded in front of him, hands tucked into the sleeves of his shirt. Just beyond him was a very disgruntled looking Miroku with a fox kit hanging by his teeth on his arm.

"You okay?" Inuyasha asked as he helped her sit up.

"Yeah… just tired."

Shippo let go of Miroku and jumped into her lap, hugging her stomach. "We were sooooo worried!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and just barely resisted thumping the kit on the head. Even he had to admit that the kid looked to cute to thump. He's not a kid, he's fourteen years old, he reminded himself.With a glare, Inuyasha picked the kit up off of Kagome's stomach and threw him over his shoulder. He didn't really care where he landed.

"Let's get going, wench."

"So help me, Inuyasha, you better stop calling me that."

He gave her a grin as he pulled her to her feet. "I'm just getting into character." He laughed until he saw her face turn serious and sad.

"Koga got into character… just a bit too much." Kagome looked up to see all of her friends watching her. "He really truly believes he is the prince of the wolf demons now. And I think that he thinks that Inuyasha killed half of his tribe. The game convinced him. I saw it in his eyes."

Miroku cleared his throat and fell into step beside Kagome. "I think I can understand that. While I was traveling alone… I too began to feel that this was my true life. I even had flashes of memories of what my life here had been. It was real. It feels real. If you hadn't found me… then I would have been just as convinced that my role here was my real life."

Kagome put a reassuring hand on Miroku's shoulder.

"Do you think we will be able to de-brainwash him?" Shippo asked, hopping up onto Kagome's shoulder.

Kagome gave him a sad smile. "I hope so."

Together they began walking towards the next village. Each one lost in their own thoughts about their friends and the game.

"Be safe, Sango," whispered Miroku.