Creatures of the Moon

Chapter Two

The almost entirely black wolf ran through the woods, a limp in one leg, not stopping for anything. The wound in his stomach had healed a great deal, though it began to bleed faster as he forced himself to move quicker.

Kouga had had to get out of there, get out of that small, closed in room, although he had to admit the girl had done a pretty good job of patching him up. But why had she helped him? He had not gotten a close look at her, too panicked to think of anything but escape at the time—though now he cursed himself for the childishness of his actions—and he wondered if she knew of werewolves and had wanted to help him.

Kouga barged into the apartment building on the outskirts of the woods. Although it was technically owned by an old human female, she had given it to the werewolves of the Skinned Pelt Pack a long time ago. Now it was their pack's lair, most of the werewolves living in its many floors and the one who did not, lived close by and knew where to come if there was trouble or a pack meeting.

He limped inward, growling as he did. His blood left a trail behind him, through the lobby and into the room use as an infirmary. Every wolf in the room instantly turned their heads toward their leader, a few in their wolf form. A few of the younger pups yipped happily, seeing that their leader was back, and flocked over toward him, but he snarled menacingly and they backed off, tails between their legs.

Ayame, their pack healer, immediately ran up to him, a blanket in hand, just as Kouga collapsed on the floor, his body changing back into his humanoid form in a display that would have been sickening for a human to watch. His black fur had hid it, but now in his human form it could be seen that his entire lower body was drenched in blood.

She was tired, having healed injured wolves all day, as it was Ayame's job in their pack, but she worked twice as hard, now that it was their leader that was hurt. She removed the bandages around his stomach—while being perplexed about how they got there—and covered his lower body with the blanket as she set her hands just above his wounded stomach where a deep purple light emitted off her. Ayame's head felt increasingly faint as she gave him her last bit of energy so his torn flesh re-knitted itself and mended.

Kagura came up behind her. "How's he doing? Is he dead yet?" the older woman asked the teenage girl.

Kagura was always less respectful then she should be to their leader, probably since she was older than him, so she felt as though she should have at least a little power over him. If not that, she felt that she should be able to talk down to him, though he corrected her every time. It was not that she did not like Kouga, no it was quite the opposite. She was one of the women of the pack who were competing for the position of head bitch, also known as Kouga's mate. One reason, because she wanted the power that came with being his mate and also just because she liked Kouga.

"Better then he should be," Ayame responded absentmindedly as she took her kit and began rubbing a healing salve on the new pink skin on his abdomen. "Someone else must have helped him out."

Kagura raised an eyebrow at that. Who would help out Kouga in his wolf form?

She scoffed and said, "who'd want to do that?"

"You know I can hear you talking," Kouga grunted as Ayame jumped in a very un-wolfish manner. She had not known he was still conscious.

"And your point is…?" Kagura asked.

A rumbling sounded came from his throat and he tried to sit up, though Ayame pushed him firmly down.

"Stay. You walk around now and you'll undo all my handiwork and I'm not healing you again," she chided him, though the soft way she touched him as she continued to care for him told Kouga that her words were not true. Ayame would have healed him again, if she had to. He stayed where he was anyway.

"We've been worried about you," the young healer told him quietly, "we didn't know what happened to you."

"And you didn't search for me?" he growled. They should have found him and busted him out of that prison the girl had held him in. He was their leader, after all.

Kagura growled at him in return and poked him rather hard in the chest. He was only glad she had not poked him in the stomach.

"You're the one that always makes sure we go to school and our jobs the next day after a fight, so we went. When you didn't show up at school, the other students figured you thought yourself too high and mighty to show up yourself even though you order the rest of them to go, and the older ones didn't even know you weren't there. The high school students only got home fifteen minutes, found you were not here either, so we sent out a party of wolves out to search for you ten minutes ago. It's not our fault you and that bastard leader disappeared off the battlefield," Kagura snapped.

The fight had lasted until daybreak, until it had finally broke off sometime later and those that had jobs and school left to go to them. Those that were wounded either brought themselves or were carried back to the apartment building to be healed by Ayame, who had skipped school to heal them. Kouga always pushed people to go to school the day after a fight, only because it would look suspicious if too many people were absent, nothing more. Kouga could care less if the wolves got an education or not, he just needed them to blend in and not expose themselves for what they really were. Creatures of the moon.

Considering most of the wolves were young, either in college, high school, and some younger, they had not known where Kouga was that day. The age of the werewolves was the same in Inuyasha's pack, most of them fairly young, not many over the age of thirty. That was because many of the adult werewolves thought their fights and battle were childish and pointless, so they moved on in search of other packs to join, but these two packs could not stop their fight. Their fight kept them going, kept them alive. It was all they knew.

When Ayame was done, she stood up and grabbed onto the wall to steady herself as a wave of dizziness came over her.

"Where's the new one?" Kouga asked.

"At home with her family, I think," Ayame responded, "I'll go tell someone to go find the party we sent out to find Kouga and bring them back," she told them and moved out of the room, using the wall as support as she went.

Kagura followed without a word, turning her back on Kouga in a disrespectful way. Kouga grabbed her wrist and brought her to him roughly. She may be a year older than him, him being a senior in high school—but only because he was left back a year—and her being in her second year of college, but he was dominant of her and her behavior was ticking him off.

"You will show me respect, one way or another," he told her angrily, yet firmly.

She smiled a smile coated in fake sweetness and leaned into him, bringing their lips close as her hand slid dangerous low on his body.

"I doubt it," she whispered into his lips then stole a quick kiss before she exited quickly, laughing at him as she did.

Kouga snarled at the closed door and threw a vase in his arm's reach at it. If he had not been injured he would have taught her a lesson so that she would never think of challenging him again. It was not the kiss he minded, it was the challenge to his authority. Still, a leader of a pack was expected to strike out at a wolf that threatened his position and strength, but Kouga was not very thrilled with an idea. He did not like striking out at a female unless it was absolutely necessary. In a case like this, it might be.

He was dominant to her, after all.

He may be dominant to her, but she did not have to like it.

It was one of the reasons why she wanted to be head bitch of the pack. Then Kagura would have almost absolute power. Hell, she would have absolute power over the pack. Men were so easy to manipulate. How did that saying go? Behind every great man, there is a woman.

Ayame was talking to one of Kouga's most loyal wolves, Ginta, who also had been the one to lead the search party for their missing leader. Ayame saw Kagura strolling over to them and turned worried eyes to her, as Ginta moved away. He did not like Kagura much.

"Ginta just reported back after following Kouga's trail of blood back here," Ayame explained. She hesitated for a second, then continued, "he… he said…. He and the others followed his scent for awhile and they found it very strong inside a human's house."

"What human?" Kagura asked, lazily as she gazed at her blood red nail polish that matched her eyes. Did it really matter what human?

"…Kagome Higurashi."

"Are you sure?" she asked sharply, grabbing the healer's arm and gazing at her now.

Ayame nodded. "He's positive. They even saw her leave her house, throwing out some towels soaked with his blood." Kagura was quiet for a while as she thought it over and Ayame continued, "do you think he knows where he was?" An evil smile suddenly grew on Kagura's face. "Not a clue." She paused. "And that's why we're not going to tell him."

"But he's the head of this pack…."

"He'll find out soon enough," the older woman interrupted. Her lips curved upward into a more devious smile than before. "Who knows, maybe he'll finally kill Inuyasha for once. Even if he doesn't, it'll prove to be quite entertaining when he does find out." She continued on, though mostly talking to herself, "I wonder how he'll react…. Maybe he'll kill her for the fun of it."

One of Inuyasha's most prized possession getting slaughtered. She'd enjoy watching that.

Oh, the enjoyment of going back to school. Kagome had missed yesterday and was sad that she had to go back now.

She walked slowly through the woods, wondering if she'd be able to get a glimpse of the wolf from yesterday. Not that that was such a bright idea. It was a extremely idiotic idea and even those words did not give justice to how stupid the idea really was. Yet still, she only wanted to make sure it was alright and that it had not died from its wounds after such a nasty fall.

She grimaced slightly as she remembered the day previous. She had been lucky enough that her mother had gotten home late and she had time to clean up most of her room, but not all. Plus she had a hard time explaining why the screen for the window was lying in shambles on the grass.

Her mother tapped her foot impatiently.

Kagome: Would you believe I threw the cat out the window?

A scornful glance.

Kagome: No…?

She sighed dejectedly. She had gotten grounded for a week. She got the whole, it's-not-about-what-you-did, it's-the-fact-that-you-lied speech. Thank God her mom had not found out about the wolf and Souta did not squeal on her. She would have been grounded for a month. Scratch that, she would have been grounded for an entire year.

Speaking of Souta not squealing on her…

She had a feeling she'd be acting as his personal slave for the weeks to come.

Oh, joy.

She had been looking down as she walked and let out a small "oomph" as she ran into someone when she reached the school grounds. Kagome was about to mumble a "sorry" but was interrupted when the person spoke.

"And where were you yesterday?" Inuyasha asked gruffly.

Kagome widened her eyes as she looked up at her friend and former boyfriend, but cursed herself mentally. She forgot to think up an good excuse to tell Inuyasha. He always seemed to be able to tell when she was lying.

"I was… er… sick," she told him, rather unconvincingly.

"Sick, eh?" he asked, an eyebrow raised, "and what type of 'sickness' was this?"

"Um… the bad kind…?" she guessed.

"Alright, and I'm sure you think I actually believe that."

"Well, I was actually just hoping…."

"Right so what were you really doing?" Inuyasha inquired, his golden eyes having an impatient glint to them.

She put her hands on her hips defensively. "And why should I tell you? What are you, my mother? Maybe I just needed a personal day."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, his patience growing thin. He had not smelt it in the beginning but coming off only very slightly, but under her own scent there was the scent of… wolf? And not just any wolves, not him, Miroku, or any of his wolves. No, this was the scent of an enemy wolf.

Kouga, he thought and growled menacingly.

Kagome took a step back, startled. Did he… did he just growl at her?

"Kagome…" he said in a tight, warning voice.

"I… I may have… tended to a wounded animal yesterday," she told him. Maybe if she did not tell him what animal he'd think it was a squirrel or something like that.

"What kind of animal?"

Well, there went that plan.

"A rabbit…?" she said in a questioning way, hoping he'd believe her. Fat chance of that.

"No, try again," he said, taking a step toward her. For a while she didn't answer and he asked again, "what animal?"

"…a wolf," she said in a small voice, giving herself away. Why couldn't she be a normal teenager and just lie? Better yet, why couldn't she lie well?

"Are you insane!" Inuyasha yelled at her, "the wolf's pack might have smelt him and came looking for him where ever you were and would have attacked you for taking one of their own."

"You're exaggerating, Inuyasha. It was really hurt badly and would have died."

"You should have let him die," he muttered.

"You may not care about other animals, but I do. Some other stupid creature harmed him and I felt bad for him, alright? He needed help."

For some reason Kagome did not know, Inuyasha cringed at her words, her not knowing that he was really the one who had attacked Kouga.

"Let his own pack help him next time," Inuyasha snapped at her, "you don't need to get yourself involved." He added silently, not anymore then I've already gotten you.

"Look, Inuyasha—" she began but stopped mid sentence, suddenly remembering something she was suppose to do yesterday. She smack her forehead and said, "Oh, shoot! I gotta go, there's something I have to do. Bye!"

"Hey, you can't ditch me!" he called after her as she scurried away. "Or at least think up a better excuse than that!" She was already gone.

Kagome scrambled through the hallways, mumbling apologies as she wove her way through the hall toward the main office. She had completely forgot that she was suppose to show a new student around yesterday.

She leaned against the counter of the main office, panting, and the secretary watched her with wide eyes.

"Miss, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yesterday… new student… show around…," Kagome said between gasps as she caught her breath.

Her guidance counselor came over and leaned against the counter next to her, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched amused, as her panting lessened.

"That's right, there was a new student yesterday, but you were absent so she had to find her classes on her own. However, I asked her to come back again today so that if you decided to show up," he teased, "then you could show her around the rest of the school." He looked behind her at the door. "Ah, and here she is now."

Kagome had caught her breath by then and turned to see the new student. She was tall, taller than Kagome at least, with long dark brown hair and bangs that almost covered her brown eyes. Her face and chin especially revealed her stubbornness, though the pink eye shadow gave her a sweet-natured look. Her face also showed that she was quicker to smile than to frown, nevertheless she seemed to be able to be very serious at times. She also looked fairly strong, though the looseness of her sleeves and other parts of her clothing hid it well.

Kagome smiled brightly at the girl, having a good feeling that she was going to like her.

"Hi, I'm Kagome," she told her, sticking out her hand.

"Sango," the girl replied with an equally bright smile, shaking the offered hand.

"Sorry about yesterday, I wasn't in school," she explained.

"That's alright, the school wasn't that hard to figure out. It's all kinda in section," she said with a half-smile.

"Yeah, pretty much, but I'll give you a tour anyway so you know where the cafeteria and library is and all that," she told the new student.

"Oh you don't have too—" Sango began.

"I want to though. Plus, I get out of class," Kagome interrupted. Nearby her counselor cleared his throat and she continued, "though I probably shouldn't have said that out loud."

"Probably," she agreed, "but who can say no to that type of logic?"

They began walking around the school aimlessly, Kagome pointing out the important places like the auditorium, but otherwise they just talked, enjoying missing class.

"So, why did you move here?" Kagome asked.

"I…well, I had some friends here… and my dad thought it would be better if I stayed close to them," she explained.

"Wait, so your dad moved just because you have close friends here? That's awesome! My mom would never do that," Kagome declared excitedly.

"Awesome, yeah," Sango responded, though somewhat gloomily. If her life had not changed so drastically not too long ago she would not had to move at all… and leave her actually friends behind….

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kagome asked innocently, peering closely at Sango.

"It's nothing…er… it's just that. I'm here because… I hope to make certain friends, but… I'm not as close with these new people as with my friends where I moved from," Sango tried to explain without letting her secret slip. "Does that make any sense?"

Kagome felt like she was not getting the full story, but she was used to that from Miroku and Inuyasha by now, however annoying it was to never know the truth.

"Well, I may not be your friends from back home… but we could be friends," Kagome told her.

Sango smiled at her, though thinking sadly, you don't know what you're getting yourself into. But the offer was too tempting to give up.

"Alright."

Again, the two shook hands, shaking on their agreement.

Classes ended and the other students began passing Kagome and Sango in mass numbers. Sango could sense other wolves this way and that, some of her pack, others… not. Ayame had explained to her the "rules" followed throughout the school and the hate between the two packs, which Sango was now involved in.

Although she had not been a wolf for long, she could feel the hate inside of her toward the other pack. She felt as though they were on her territory and that they did not belong there. But also because they were different from them and they natural hated each other.

Sango had been bitten only a year ago, along with brother, but she was the one that was affected…. She was the one that changed. After many violent months under the full moon, her father had decided it would be best to find a pack of "people" like her to help control her. And so they had moved.

But her father did not know of the hatred and fighting, a well-kept secret among the warriors. Sango felt the hate as well, even after only being in Kalvin for a week now, adjusting to her new life. Hate just because they were… different from them… and they were in their territory. Part of the fight was the fight over the land, trying to drive the other pack away, but neither would relent.

Kagome spotted Inuyasha and Miroku and began walking toward them.

She pulled lightly on Sango's arm. "Come on, you can meet my friends."

Sango tensed under her grip, her skin breaking out in goosebumps, hair raised. A cold feeling spread through her and she took a hesitant step back. Golden eyes clashed with brown as she met the deadly eyes of Inuyasha, standing not ten feet away. Inuyasha, the other pack's leader.

His gaze was intense, promising certain death if she came any closer. Sango just got here and already she was doing something wrong? She was certain he would not have liked her anyway, but Ayame had told her the school was suppose to be "safe" ground. Then why did he look like he would come over and kill her any second now?

"Sango?" Kagome asked worriedly. Sango's face had gotten very pale all of the sudden.

Kagome was heading toward the two enemy wolves, bringing her along with her.

"I… I can't… I gotta go," Sango said hurriedly and disappeared in the crowd, going quickly in the other direction.

Kagome looked over at Inuyasha with a puzzled look on her face. He was still stalking over, look particularly pissed off. Kagome, not wanting to deal with him if he was in another one of his yelling moods, waved a goodbye and disappeared into the crowd too, heading off to her next period, her thoughts circling around Sango, Inuyasha, and the wolf from the day before.

That is, until she bumped into someone new.

It was only her shoulder and arm that ran into the person, but it caused her to spin halfway around to see who she bumped into. At the same time, he turned to regard her and their eyes met.

The boy was older than her by two or three years, no less. He did not look like the smartest person in the world, but neither was he dumb. His body was muscular, easily seen from the muscle shirt he was wearing and he was handsome, no doubt about that. His long black hair was up in a ponytail, though there were also bangs that were not quite long enough to cover his eyes. But what got her most were his eyes. His perfect, crystal blue eyes.

She felt a shock go through her as she met his eyes and she wasn't even sure why.

Why did he seem so… so familiar to her? She vaguely remembered seeing him a few times in school, but their high school was pretty damn large, with around two thousand people in it coming from as far as an hour away, since their school had high standards. Then why did she feel like she knew him somehow?

She continued to walk away, though every few steps looked back at the familiar-seeming boy and he did the same. She bumped into more people as she looked back at the one, but did not even bother to mumble an apologize. Kagome began to walk backward as she continued to gaze at him.

What was it about him that made her feel like she'd met him before?

Kouga was in a particularly bad mood after having to deal with Kagura once again that morning and found himself snapping at everyone who even so much as glanced at him funny. It was really his own fault for not teaching Kagura her place before. He'd have to soon and perhaps that was why he was even more testy than normal.

He then brushed up against someone and was about to yell at them when Kouga caught sight of who it was. A girl.

She had long black hair and wide, innocent brown eyes. She had a stubborn chin, but such a bright and pure appearance that he knew she had seen little to no horrors in her life. But none of that really mattered at the moment. It was her scent that got him, the scent that was familiar.

This was Inuyasha's girl, protected by his pack and just as good—or should he say, bad?—as any one of his wolves. She was a part of the enemy and chosen by Inuyasha. He hated her. Should have hated her, at least.

But that wasn't all.

Kouga never got a good look at his capture, but he had known her scent had seemed familiar… although he had been in too much of a panic to realize it then. Now, he cursed himself for his foolishness. If he had hurt her…. Well, what? Inuyasha would kill him? He sneered at the thought. They had only been trying to kill each other for years, it was no different now if a human happened to get in the way. Even if that human happened to be fairly attractive and rather curvy…. Kouga shook his head firmly, trying to get the girl out of his head.

He couldn't. He felt his bad mood evaporate, forgetting all about it as he continued to look over his shoulder at the girl, only to find her doing the same. Did she know? Did she recognize him as the wolf she tended to? Then he found himself wondering if it was a trick. Was she trying to make him feel secure with her so that she could attack him in Inuyasha's name?

It didn't make sense though. Inuyasha could have killed him, almost had, he was sure. Something had made him stop. Had it been her?

Kouga could think of no other reason for Inuyasha to have left him alive. And that mean he owed the girl his life and that wasn't a debt he liked repaying. But for her maybe he'd make an acceptation. She was, after all, very attractive….

Still…. Could it all be some big trick?

But from the lost, innocent look on her face, he knew it was not. She seemed to recognize him though, but unable to place from where. Kouga grinned as he watched the girl begin to walk backwards, just so she could continue to gaze at him. Then again, wasn't he doing the same thing at looking back at her?

She continued backward until she ran into someone behind her.

Inuyasha.

Inuyasha rested his chin on top of her head and put a possessive arm around her waist while growling slightly. No one around him noticed, except for Kagome, but Kouga heard. Kouga growled back, wanting to go fight him so he could take the girl away from him.

Wait, since when was he possessive of the girl? She had helped him, not even knowing what he was, but she was in no way his. Yet in his mind, he had every right to her as did Inuyasha. She was human after all and not of either pack, since she was not a werewolf. Plus she had helped him. So shouldn't he too have a right to her?

He told himself he was only curious of the girl, but not liking how attached he seemed to her already, he left without challenging Inuyasha even though he wanted to, very badly at that.