He was furious.

This company was shady, awful, and quite literally shit.

The 'Contact us now' button that illuminated his computer screen all but toyed with his rage. Briefly, he wondered if the business thought he or other customers would not notice. Unable to control his anger, he clicked it, ready to make whoever would connect his chat nothing short of miserable.

Was it fair? No.

Yet, the company did not seem to play the game fairly, so why should he?

Here he was, with a pack to feed, and they had simply stopped responding to follow-up requests. Hell, even the chat had gone offline. Now that it was finally back, he would give them a piece of his mind. His entire pack had been scared and full of panic. As alpha, he was supposed to protect them from such a thing.

Yet, here they were.

'Kagome has joined the chat.'

"My pack can't eat you piece of—"

Nope. Change that. Holding down the backspace key with far more pressure than needed, he tried again with a milder version of his current emotions.

"My family is without food. There is a pandemic going on. Where in the actual fuck is my shit?!"

Sure, he knew the poor user on the other line more than likely was not directly responsible for this mess, but if nothing else, they would be the ones to confront his frustration and temper. This was their job, after all. More importantly, he had every reason to be pissed.

'Kagome is typing...'

For a moment, those words gave him pause.

His entire body seemed to halt instantaneously and froze up after reading the chat screen. If he was panicking before, he was only confused now. Why was he unable to type so much as another word? Furrowing his brows, he tried to understand the instinctive behavior that gripped at him.

Why was he hesitating?

Then, as if to answer his question, memories from long ago slowly flickered through his mind. One by one, they invaded each and every one of his senses.

Kagome?

Kagome.

Oh.

Just like that, recollections of the past and hidden memories from centuries ago replayed in his mind.

"Ka-go-me"

Visions of raven black hair and piercing blue eyes like his own danced in his sight. The echoes of a stern voice reciting the pronunciation of her name all but played over on repeat in his head. Recalling such things, he smiled in remembrance that It had been her favorite way to inform individuals that she expected them to use her name when being addressed. Closing his eyes as more and more memories surfaced, he swore he heard her carefree laugh next to him. A laugh that belonged not in the present, but in the past.

Shaking his head, he quickly tried to disperse such thoughts.

That had been so long ago.

His pup years nearly.

Such a time had felt like another life.

It was another life.

"I'm so sorry to hear that your order hasn't arrived. No worries, if you can provide me the confirmation number, I'd be more than happy to look into this and see how we can best assist towards a resolution!"

Koga rolled his eyes at such a generic customer service response. Was this what the company was teaching its employees? Did people not get frustrated by such generic responses?

He tried to stay focused on the chat and, more importantly, the present. If he was honest, he really had attempted to block out all thoughts from the past that pertained to her. Yet, somehow, he simply couldn't let the past go. For a brief moment, he gathered what little memories he had of the priestess from the past and imaged her speaking the words of the customer service representative.

He snorted.

As if.

No, she was never one for such generic responses or conversation. If anything, she had always done the opposite. Her reactions and words to almost any situation were unique and seldom were what was expected.

Typing the confirmation number in the chat, he wondered if anyone had ever found her—the stunning Miko with ocean grey eyes. The beauty had been passionate, kind, and nothing short of incredible. As more and more hidden memories surfaced, his beast let out a low whine of longing.

Still, after all this time?

He wanted to laugh at the irony of centuries having passed and his beast still feeling the same. Instead, he allowed a sad smile to surface in silence understanding. It made sense. She had been that special—a rare gem in the feudal era. She had been one of a kind. Strong. Brave. Kind. Beautiful. She would have made a perfect mate. He was sure of it.

The woman had deserved far better than the mutt she had loved. How strange it was to think that the world had not corrected such an incompatible match and lead the priestess towards a much better suiter that could have given her happiness. Perhaps, one such as himself? Back then, he had been so sure that she was the one.

His chosen.

If nothing else, the universe had provided him with the bare minimum pertaining to justice in that department. The gods above had ensured such a match did not occur between the dog. To this day, he remembered the pain he felt at his first official heartbreak when he had not been chosen and his happily ever was ripped away. How his beast had whined, clawed at the surface, and threatened to rage at being abandoned with no explanation.

Yet, having aged and a few hundreds of years later, he had come to the realization that it had probably hurt less than if she had actually gotten together with the half-breed.

Fuck, what had happened to her?

Naraku had been defeated, and then, almost instantly, she was gone.

Just like that. No words. No goodbyes. She had simply vanished.

At the time, he had wondered if her departure and disappearance had to do with him. Had he said too much? Had he overreacted? Had he been too blunt during their last conversation before the defeat of Naraku? Did he drive her away?

So, he had gone to the group that he had expected to provide answers on her disappearance. Instead, they didn't. It had seemed that he was the only one to be so drastically affected by her departure. Her entire group had been consistent in their behavior and the vague answers to his inquiries and interrogation.

"She's back with her family now."

That had been what her entire pack had told him time and time again.

For the life of him, he couldn't understand.

Back with her family?

But, he had never seen her family in their travels. More importantly, if she was back with her family, why did their words hold nothing but sadness? It was almost as if they were announcing her death. Had such a thing occurred? If so, why were they not mourning? Where was her body?

Such thoughts left departure as the only option that made sense.

Except, there was no scent. If she had left, he would have been able to follow her trail. Hell, he would have followed her to the ends of the world if needed. He had planned on it. But her scent had ended at a well. When he had inquired about such a thing, her entire pack had gone unusually mute. Almost as if they all had a shared secret to hide.

But what secrets could there be about an aged and ancient well?

A ding interrupted his thoughts once more.

"Koga, are you still with me? No rush, just want to make sure we didn't get disconnected."

Shit.

Scrolling up in the chat, he caught up with the conversation that had occurred while he was too busy reminiscing about things that had no right being brought back up again.

Skimming through the chat, he nodded in approval. His order had been expedited, and a coupon was added.

"Thanks. I need to make sure the order arrives by tomorrow. My entire family is here, and we have members that can't go out in the pandemic. We order groceries from you guys and haven't had a problem until now."

He wanted to explain just why he had been so angry at the beginning of the chat.

Yet, it wasn't easy to explain that half his pack now resided in his domain since the whole world had seemed to shut down. Usually, he would have gone and gotten groceries, but as more of his packmates came back home for security, the more food he needed. That had been why trips to the grocery store were no longer a viable option, but instead, he had turned to delivery.

Such an option allowed him to have enough food to be restocked weekly to feed over twenty people without driving to a store and leaving with multiple carts. Even still, with the convenience came the extra cost. Talk about a hell of a grocery bill when all the delivery charges were added. Nevertheless, his delivery orders were always on time and biweekly. Something that was nothing short of luxury during this pandemic. It had been perfect and helpful. Except, then something had happened, and his regular schedule day came and went without groceries.

Normally, he wouldn't have panicked.

But then, three more days passed, and the chat support went offline, and phone calls weren't going through.

Fast forward a week, running low on food, and finally, the delivery service let everyone know that there had been a delay in production and a strike.

Something about livable wages.

He rolled his eyes.

If only this generation knew what it was like to live in the feudal era.

He let out a laugh.

"I understand completely. No problem, I've gotten a delivery set up for today and doubled some of the items we have in stock free of charge. Sorry about this again!"

His eyes lit up.

Now that was customer service.

Feeding his pack wasn't cheap, and duplicates of items free of charge were more than he had expected. In fact, such an action would assist with his most expensive bill and provide additional food to make up for his virtually empty pantry.

"Thanks! Sorry about before."

Even he shocked himself as he sent the message to the representative. Apologizing? Clearly, the thoughts of long ago must have made him soft. For now, he would blame the fact that the customer service agent had her name.

Sighing, he allowed himself some truth.

He had fallen hard for her. The woman that had all but ghosted him before it even became a thing. Rubbing his temple, he sighed in relief for fixing the food shortage problem.

"You don't have to apologize; you're ensuring your family is taken care of and fed. We apologize that this caused an inconvenience to you and them. Did you have any other questions or concerns I could assist with today?"

He nodded in mild approval at her response. Okay, so maybe he had been a little too aggressive, but yet, the person seemed to understand.

How very like her.

"You don't have to apologize, Koga."

"I understand. No problem."

How many times had she said that in the past to others and himself? The words sounded like something that would roll off her tongue without a second thought.

She had never placed blame.

Always understanding.

Always kind.

"Nope, that's it. Thank you."

With those words typed up and sent, he disconnected the chat.

Closing his eyes in thought, he cursed at himself.

How had one chat brought memories from hundreds of years back? If his past patterns were any indication, she would be stuck in his mind for a while now.

He had done so well in the previous years. For centuries, he had tried to hide away the precious memories of the raven-haired goddess. Every time she was brought back, he had promised himself he would forget her.

For a few hundreds of years, he would.

But, in the end, she always came back.

At first, it had been hard.

The night sky had reminded him of the color of her locks. Whenever the sun would hit the ocean waves, he would imagine her sparkling eyes. Any patch of green or forest had brought back the kit that was always in her arms.

For centuries, he had struggled with the realization that she would forever linger in his mind. Memories of her were integrated with everything around him.

He should have known to forget her would be impossible.

Now, only to have a customer service representative bring back her memory as if it was a fresh wound. Groaning, he ran his fingers through his hair. No, she was more like a scar than anything else. Healed, but never the same. And he had, hadn't he?

Healed?