Now things are heating up a little, but not in the way you're expecting, I bet!
In The Jaws Of The Wolf
Chapter Six
The wolf laughed. "Koga said you were funny. I didn't think he was right, though."
"His sense of humour is a bit off," I agreed dryly, stepping away from the demon. Akari, I decided. Ginta had told me about him. He'd mentioned how bright his hair was, but I didn't imagine it was that bright. I'd seen persimmons with duller colours than his hair.
He laughed again, and bent to pick up my fallen basket, piling all the furs back into it and heaving it up onto his shoulder. "You know him pretty well, then, huh? I didn't think he was being truthful when he said he had a human friend down in the village. I thought he'd made you up when he gave us the order to keep an eye out for you. You know him. But here you are, living proof. So what do I know? C'mon, den's this way."
I fell into line with him. "Well, you know he's an idiot, so you're leagues above some."
His laughter was almost a wheezing gasp now. "Better not let him hear you say that."
"Oh, I tell him to his face plenty." Koga couldn't go ten minutes without doing something stupid, and I couldn't let him off easy when he did. I'd let the man know he was an idiot without hesitation.
"You're a laugh riot, girl. I can't believe he's been keeping you from us. Oh, I'm Akari, by the way."
"I know." Oh, rude. Woops. "Ginta told me about you."
Akari squinted down at me. "Ginta huh? That little runt was in on your action, too? Damn, what's a wolf gotta do to get the news quick around here?"
"Have damaged pelts. I've had a dozen of you guys dropping torn pelts off for me to fix over the last few days. Do you just tear them apart for fun?"
"Some of us do," he admitted. "You gotta enjoy a good scrap every now and again, right? We're just round this corner. Guess we're lucky for now. Easy to find you in the den. Everyone'll have something for you to fix by the end of the night."
"They can learn to use a need them- Oh..." Now wasn't that a sight and make no mistakes. I'd never seen such a beautiful waterfall before. This was where they lived? Talk about beautiful locales.
Above us, on one of the grassy banks around the waterfall, a demon whistled. "Hey, Akari, you bringing food to us now?"
Food? I hoped he wasn't talking about me, though I had a feeling he was. I didn't think I'd be eaten when I came here for safety.
"Yeah, think again," Akari shot back, dropping his free hand on my shoulder. "This is Koga's human."
"The one from that human village at the foot?"
"That's the one."
Akari nudged me forwards, towards the waterfall. When we got to it, he thrust his arm into the stream, holding it up like a barrier so I could walk under his arm and not get too wet. "Go on in. Koga's probably in the alcove."
A den hidden behind a waterfall. Now that was clever. The water would cut the smell off and hide them from sight. I ducked under his arm, and he followed me through the stream, shaking his head when he was clear. "Whoo, that's cold. Hey Koga! You got a visitor."
Koga stuck his head out of a little alcove to the right of us. "Dan?"
Around me, a couple familiar wolves greeted me as well. Wolves that had dropped their furs off to me. I couldn't name many of them, but I did recognise their faces.
"What are you doing here?"
"Bit of a long story." How did I even start? My husband had given me an ultimatum and I'd chosen you over him? I didn't think so. I'd sooner just not say anything if it was all the same to him.
Akari was quick to speak up, though. "I found her about to become a snack to a Bird of Paradise down by the Southern post. I made quick work of it, but she got a bit banged up."
"Yeah," Koga agreed in a drawl. "I could smell her blood as soon as you walked in here. I owe you for looking out for her, brother. Are you okay, Dan?" He cupped my chin, turning my face side to side, checking for damage.
"I'm fine. It's just my shoulder. A little scratch. I'll be okay." Actually it was stinging like nobody's business, but my kimono was hardly torn, and there wasn't enough blood to make it stick to me, so that was a good sign.
Koga's fingers curled around the collar of my kimono and began tugging it down.
"Hey!" I flinched back, pulling the kimono back up. I did not need to be showing everyone in this cave my chest. Half of these men looked like they were going to eat me. Some of the actually might, if the guy from outside was anything to go by.
"Hey, don't flinch away, idiot. I'm just going to check and bathe it." He rapped his knuckles against my forehead.
"And show half the pack dinner, idiot."
Koga blinked then looked around. Sure enough, the entire pack was staring. He snarled. "What are you all looking at?! Get lost."
Like his word was law, they did just that. A good portion disappeared off outside, and the rest turned back to what I presumed was whatever they were doing before Akari and I walked in.
Grabbing hold of my arm, Koga dragged me along to the alcove he had been sat in. From the waterfall, you couldn't tell what the alcove was, but as we approached I got a look at a massive bed of furs. He sat and pulled me down with him. "Let me see."
He was smart enough to wait for me to peel back the fabric this time, holding what I could protectively against my chest so nobody could see.
"Ouch. Looks nasty." He prodded at it. "Doesn't look dirty, though. You got lucky." He leaned forwards to lave his tongue over the deep scratches.
I winced and hissed, but stayed as still as I could.
"So are you gonna share?" he asked when he pulled away and nudged me around so he could get to the scratches on the back of my shoulder.
"I couldn't stay in the village any more. My choices were to come here or wander the wilds."
"And you chose me."
He sounded so smug. I could just punch him. "I chose the option where I had the better chance of living. But if you're gonna be smug about it, I'm not sure I made the right choice."
"Well, you've already made it now. Welcome to the Eastern tribe."
And that was that. I was one of them.
I pondered whether it was really that easy as Koga's tongue lapped at my skin again.
As I expected, as soon as it got out in the den that I was a seamstress, thanks to one of Ginta's friends showing off the waist wrapping pelt I had fixed for him and thanking me altogether too loudly, I'd gained a pile of torn, and in some cases shredded, bits of fur to fix. The pile was easily bigger than I was, and sat on the stone ground in front of the piled furs in the alcove.
I guessed I'd found my role in the den pretty damned quickly, then.
It wasn't too long into sewing that the big dark wolf I'd recognised from hunting and that day at the stream padded up and dropped down half on my lap. I grunted under the weight of him, but pet his neck affectionately. "Hello beautiful."
The light chatter around the alcove stopped dead suddenly.
I looked up, expecting Koga to have returned from wherever he had gone, but the Wolves weren't looking at the waterfall. They were looking at me. At least a dozen Wolves were just staring straight at me in shock.
"What?" I demanded. What could they possibly be staring at?
"Nao," the closest Wolf said, pointing to the wolf sprawled out on me.
I looked down at him, then back up. "Yeah, and?" What was so strange about that? A wolf liked me. Big deal. It's how I even ended up here in the first place.
Akari jumped through the waterfall then, walking towards the ever-expanding group of gawking men. "What's going o-on? What in the world?" He craned his head to get a better look at me and the wolf in my lap.
"What's so strange about it?!" I snapped, feeling particularly insecure with all the eyes on me. I really didn't like the attention.
"Well he's not... mangling you, or growling or- unhappy in the slightest," Akari pointed out, coming to lean against the edge of the alcove, arms crossed over his chest. "Seeing Nao happy is like seeing Ginta be useful."
"Hey!" the gentle wolf cried out.
That broke the tension, and a lot of the staring wolves started laughing. That escalated in them starting to tease each other, and soon not a single one was looking at me.
"Thank you," I murmured to the red-haired Wolf.
"I knew you were special."
My brows rose. "You weren't saying that earlier." Earlier he was saying he didn't believe Koga when he said I was all right. That was a far cry from knowing I was special.
Akari held his hands up in defeat. "I only knew you through Koga then. Now I actually know you, and I know you're special."
A man who could admit he was wrong. Now there's a breed I never thought I'd see. My lips curled into a little smile, and I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. "Well, thanks. Are you gonna sit and keep me company? Nao's great, but he's not very talkative."
"He's plenty talkative when he wants to be," Akari replied dryly, coming to sit near me. Instead of sitting on the furs beside me, he sat on the stone floor. What was that about? "Never very nice about it, either."
Nao grumbled in response.
"Yeah, fuck you, too," the red Wolf replied with a grin. "Told you everyone would have something for you to fix, didn't I? You'll be here forever fixing up all this."
I groaned, pointedly not looking at the pile as I sewed. "Please don't remind me. I thought I'd be free of it and finally get some real time for my kimono. Guess not." Maybe someday I'd have time to really pour some effort into that thing. I'd had some great ideas recently that I wanted to start sewing. Sadly, that day wouldn't be any time soon.
"I'd help you if I could, but my sewings not all that pretty." He raised his arms to show off the piece of fur around his thick forearm. The seam I could see was terrible. If I could see the stitching from a few feet away, it was not good.
"Who even makes all the clothes in the first place anyway? Surely they can fix some of this."
He shook his head. "Nah, Koga had him when he came into town. He was the old alpha's brother, you see. Nasty business. He never taught anyone else. Didn't think he needed to." His shoulders rolled in a shrug. "Now we got you, though, we'll be fine."
"Until I die of being over-worked."
Akaru chuckled. "You're made of tougher stuff than that. If you can survive a Bird of Paradise, you can survive a bit of sewing."
I surveyed the large pile, that still seemed to be growing.
"Okay," he conceded. "A lot of sewing."
That night I laid staring up at the dark ceiling of the cave.
Koga had decided that for now I'd be sleeping by him in the alcove. Just until I settled in and he was sure that none of the Wolves would want a midnight snack. The pelts were really comfortable. The futon that I shared with Ando most nights just couldn't compare.
Still, I just couldn't sleep.
It had nothing to do with Koga snoring in my ear, or the noise of a hundred other bodies in the same large room. That actually comforted me more than anything else, knowing that there were people around. For someone so antisocial, I really did enjoy people, and these people seemed nice enough so far, besides the fact that I was prey here. I was off-limits. I was safe enough.
I just couldn't settle. My mind just kept running over the conversation with Ando, everything that had led up to this point.
I tried to pinpoint one moment that had led up to it. Was it meeting Koga? Feeding the wolves on that hunt? Befriending Koga? Or was it before that? Marrying Ando with no love between us? Distancing myself to him? Every argument we'd ever had was a potential for that one moment that changed everything for me.
What was it?
Giving up on the idea of sleep, I decided that some fresh air would be best for me.
The wolves slept deeply, I found out, as I stepped through the bodies on the floor. I managed not to kick or stand on anyone, but I wasn't the most sneaky I could be, that was for sure. Not one of them woke up.
The moon was bright in the sky that night, and the cool breeze was nice. I sat in the grass a little way away from the waterfall, just staring up at the moon.
I don't know how long I was sat there alone, but eventually I heard the splash and shuffle of someone else leaving the den, and felt the air shift as someone sat next to me. I didn't look away from the moon.
"What are you doing up so late?" Akari.
"Have you ever had to deal with a change you just...don't know how to?" I asked instead of answering him.
He sighed deeply beside me. "Oh yeah." I waited, to see if he would elaborate. After a moment, he did. "My father was the alpha of the pack before Koga came along." Wait, wasn't Joji the last leader's son? "I was never really in line to be the alpha. I just wasn't suited to it. That was my younger brother Joji's calling." Ah. "But when Koga came in with these shards and all this power, my dad was a pretty prideful guy; he wasn't just going to roll over. So Koga killed him. Joji and I, we've got our pride, but we want to live with it. So, despite all that anger and fear, we bent the knee."
He inhaled, then let his breath out in a long gust. "I went from potential alpha to just another face in the crowd, without a dad, and following his killer. Not that I have anything against Koga. My dad was a handful and Koga was well within reason. He's a good leader, no matter how much shit he talks. Sometimes a bit too rough, but when you're as young as he is, he's barely even twenty, you gotta make a name for yourself somehow."
The silence stretched between us.
"Come here. You're freezing. All your fur's sticking up." His hands were gentle as he guided me to lean against his chest. It was bare, but so warm, even through my kimono. His arms were just as warm as they wrapped around me, pulling me closer.
I curled into his chest, pressing my cheek into the crook of his neck. "Thank you, for sharing," I murmured into his hot skin.
His fingers began to weave through my hair. "I'll listen when you want to share, too."
We stayed like that for the rest of the night, curled up together under the moon.
And that's another chapter done.
So what did you guys think of Akari? I'm absolutely in love with him, and he will be sticking around and playing a massive part in Dan's story for a while. If you don't like him, I'm sorry. But personally I love him, and it's gonna be a great thing having him around. Don't worry, though. Koga will get his action, too. He won't be forgotten. Like I ever could, right?
And, like I'd hoped, the more I write, the easier it is to write longer chapters. This chapter mounted to almost three thousand words. A thousand more than the first chapter. Not a really massive thing for some fanfic writers, but I always struggle to break about 2500 words in chapters, which is why Perfidious is a difficult one for me to write.
As per the usual, I'll be posting to Miasma before I post here again. If you're in a Naraku mood, head on over there and read that. I'm having just as much fun writing that one as I am this one, and things are starting to pick up over in that fic, too. We got romance brewing.
I'll see you next time, guys!