We're so close to being caught up with Miasma I can taste it. Two more chapters, then I can start writing Miasma again. Not that I don't love ITJOTW, but there's just something about Miasma that holds my soul. It's a story that's going to get very dark and twisted, and I just love dark and twisted.

Anyway, enough admitting my dark twisted literature addiction. Let's read!

In The Jaws Of The Wolf

Chapter Eleven

I stood back with Nao and the handful of other wolves that had made it down to the reserve while Koga sauntered forwards, chuckling to himself. He was clearly planning on having his fun with this while he was still interested. Good. I couldn't blame him. Koga wanted the shards for a reason, a damned good reason. Making a real example out of Yuto would make sure that no one would attempt to be this stupid again.

"I had to search high and low for you, you dirty thief," the younger Wolf drawled as he crouched before the half-drowned Wolf that had been fished out of the reserve. He dragged Yuto up by his hair, grin wide. The grin was sadistic in a way I'd only really heard stories about from Ginta and Akari. It was strange seeing Koga like this. Strange, but not terrible. There was something that I liked about the way his grin lit up his face, even if it was with sadistic glee. "Now hand over the sacred jewel shard that you've stolen from me."

Yuto looked terrified. His skin, that was usually just as tanned as Koga's, was ashen with the amount of blood that had drained from his face. "All right. I won't run away," he assured in a shaky, choked voice as he reached into his pelt shawl for the shard.

The dim glow that the shard gave off brightened when the shard came into view. It had the same unsettling beauty as I remembered. Yuto's hand was shaking as he drew back away from it.

Abandoning his grip on Yuto's hair, Koga snatched up the shard. He stood and began back towards us.

"You're letting me go? Thank you for your mercy."

Yuto was an idiot. Surely he knew Koga by now. If I knew not to give Koga ideas in crucial moments in just the few weeks I knew him, then surely his packmates would know the same. Surely they weren't that stupid.

Then again, Koga was pretty new to the pack, wasnt he? He'd come crashing in and claiming he was their new leader not long before I met him. Maybe this Wolf didn't know Koga well. From what I could tell, living in the den, Koga didn't actually spend too much time inside. He liked to be out and about, in the woods, hunting, and when I was in the village, visiting me.

Still, Yuto was a moron.

Koga stopped in his tracks, unsettlingly bright eyes finding mine as a slow, wicked smirk spread across his face. He made a quiet noise in the back of his throat then turned on his heel, swiping at the older Wolf without a seconds hesitation.

I winced, turning away from the gore that spurted around them from the impact, if only to save myself from being covered in blood. Still, I felt drops splatter against the skin of my cheek and chest. Wonderful.

"You fool," Koga taunted the dead body at his feet, flicking blood off his fingers. "I would have forgotten."

That I could believe. Koga was a man with a pretty one-track mind. Now he had the shard back, I wouldn't be surprised if the grand total of his plan was just to go back to the den and forget the experience even happened. If Yuto had kept quiet and not returned, Koga wouldn't have spared him a second thought. The older Wolf could have gone on to another pack or travelled the country alone, but very much alive. But when reminded, Koga wasn't going to let that slight go.

Poor Yuto had the chance to live and squandered it.

Now he'd really be an example for others.

"All right, I've gotten what I wanted." Koga grinned, turning his attention down to the wolves around us. "Let's get going."

A quiet whine from Nao reached my ear. "Why not let them stay and hunt? Some of them have already got lucky. Might as well let them enjoy their hunt, too," I suggested. It seemed a waste of life to drag the wolves away from the people they'd already slaughtered without actually eating them.

Koga considered me for a moment, looking a little shocked. Not that I blamed him. I'd spent the majority of my life with these people. If I was even fractionally connected to any of them, I probably wouldn't have let the wolves get this far. But these people had chased me out of the village with rocks because they thought I'd slept with a demon. I didn't care a mite for any of them.

With a shrug, he nodded. "All right, boys. You heard her. Stay in the village and feed to your heart's desire. You can catch up to us when you're done. C'mon, Dan. Let's get out of here."

"Actually, I wanna make a stop in the village before we go." I headed back up the stairs to the village and began the familiar walk from the reserve to my old hut. The one I'd spent eight years living in. It was certainly a strange experience going back now I was one of the Wolves. "I could stand to pick up a few things while we're here."

"You think he kept some of your stuff?" Koga strode up the steps after me, falling into step with me.

A snort escaped me. "Ando wouldn't raise a hand to clean the hut on threat of death. All my stuff's still there." I was confident.

It was indeed all still there, pretty much in exactly the same place as I had left it all. Further still, there was something else in the hut that I really wasn't expecting. Rather, someone else.

Hidden behind the food storage, curled up into a shaking ball, was Ando.

"You used to live in this hovel?" Koga asked, face screwing up as he looked around the small hut Ando and I had shared. He flat-out ignored the cowering, crying human as he lifted the lid of the food store and sniffed at the rice inside. With a grunt, he dropped the lid back down onto the pot. "It's tiny."

I supposed compared to the massive cave that I now called home, it was. But my little hut had the privacy that the den didn't really allow. Akari and I got by pretty well with Akari's little nest hidden behind the stalagmites near the back of the cave, but we were still very much in the den with everyone else. "It worked fine for eight years. I don't have any complaints."

I hoisted myself up out of the doma and began opening chests and baskets that I'd stored my life in over the years. "Get one of those empty baskets, would you, Koga?" I gestured down into the doma Koga was still stood in, where there was a pile of empty woven baskets.

He grabbed for one, and gave an amused chuckle when Ando whimpered and flinched away from him. I had to agree with Koga there. That was a good sound. I certainly wasn't complaining that my useless husband was terrified of my new friends. He wouldn't make a fuss again. Well, if he survived the wolves, that was.

Koga leaned against the doma with his hip, arms crossed over his chest. "Don't think you're filling up my den with useless human crap."

"Fuck off, Koga. I'll fill it with whatever I want."

"Then you can carry it all."

I turned a glare to him. "Or you can stop being an ass."

He huffed.

I dumped a couple pieces of clothing into the basket, then moved onto another chest. This one, after some deliberation, I decided I would bring the entire contents of. It was filled with the supplies I used to make my arrows and restring my bow if the string ever broke. I could just leave that to the Wolves stores and weapons, but this was familiar to me. I wanted to keep it close. So I dragged it out next to the basket and moved on.

Despite telling Koga to screw off, there really was only a few things I wanted. A few extra pieces of clothing was really it.

The last things that I wanted were right by Ando. I hopped down into the doma and reached for the sandals I wanted to take. It would do me some good to have a couple pairs for when the ones I was currently wearing wore out. Shoes were not my expertise in crafting, and the Wolves just flat-out didn't wear them. My feet weren't demon-strong, so I definitely needed a stock.

Ando practically launched himself at me when I came close. I grunted, crumpling to the ground under his weight. "What are you doing?" I questioned, looking down at him, what little of him I could see with him against my chest, in shocked disgust.

"Please," he sobbed. "Please, Dan. You're my wife. These wolves... Have mercy on your husband. Please."

My eyes turned wildly to Koga, who was picking at his ear in disinterest as he watched. "Oi, asshole, lend a hand?"

The demon shrugged. "I wouldn't want to get in between a lover's spat. Though, what would Akari think?"

Oh, Koga was playing with fire. Fine. Let him be a dick.

I pulled at Ando's hair trying to unstick him from me. My husband was not so easily deterred. Still, I yanked at his hair and tried to wriggle away as he cried. "Ando, get the fuck off of me."

"Dan, please. Please, I love you. Please. Please."

I froze.

He loved me?

Anger lashed through me, hot and sharp and evil in its need for release. I punched him, in the side of the head was the best I'd get in the situation, but it was enough to unbalance him and get away myself.

"You love me?" I shot back at him, alive with angry energy. I kicked at his shoulder, sending him sprawling back on the ground, head at Koga's feet. "You don't know a thing about love."

What Ando and I had was not love. It wasn't even like. By the end, the two of us despised each other. It was twisted and sick and dark and I'd spent over a third of my life being eaten up by it. That wasn't love.

His declaration wasn't from any unrealised feelings, either. That was desperation, the need to stay alive and thinking he could manipulate me and my fragile emotions to do it.

If he wanted to live so bad, let him.

With a shaky breath, I snatched up the sandals I had been going for. "Leave, Ando. Run, walk, crawl. I don't care. This place is a graveyard now. If you want to live you need to go."

That was all Ando needed. My mercy. He jumped up, and without hesitation, ran past Koga.

I threw the sandals into the basket and hoisted it up against my hip. "Grab the chest," I ordered Koga.

"You're letting the human go?" he questioned instead.

I smiled and stepped out of the hut, just in time to see some wolves bunding at Ando. I broke their concentration with a whistle. "Let him go," I told them. They didn't look like they wanted to listen, but eventually did.

"You're calling them off?" Koga was outraged now.

"Huntings better when the prey's had a chance to run." I wasn't so much a master hunter, but even I could agree that there was some sort of delight in the feeling of chasing your prey when it was scared and tired and all you could think about was how it tasted. That moment before I struck, when I tasted pork in my mouth, was one of my favourite things about hunting.

Nao appeared by my side, licking at his bloodied muzzle.

"Give him a minute then go," I told the wolf, watching Ando's back. "Make him suffer. Eat every scrap."

He deserved that much and more.

Koga grinned at my side. "Boy, you're scary when you want to be."

We barely got to the tree line ourselves when the adrenaline faded, and left in its stead the bitter realisation of what had happened; what I'd just done.

It started with just a few stray tears, but soon devolved into a sob that bought along with it even more.

Koga started freaking out at the first scent of salt. He jumped as if he'd been struck when the first few tears streaked down my face, hands coming up in a restless bid to do something to fix it, though not knowing what. "H-hey, what are you crying for?" Ever delicate, Koga made it sound more like an accusation than being worried.

Hiccoughing, trying to hold back the tears and only managing to sob loudly, I wiped frustratedly at my tears. I trudged onwards, trying to ignore my own sniffling and sobbing. I didn't want to put a name to what I was feeling. I wanted to just let the tears out and get on with life. I wanted to put this and everything that had happened today so far behind me.

"Hey." Koga had stopped when he'd noticed my tears, and skipped a few long strides to catch up with me. "Dan-"

"Dont." I sniffled again, wiping at my wet cheeks again, trying to swipe the awful tears out of existence. "Please, just-" Don't.

Clearly not understanding my need to try and evade what I was currently trying so hard not to feel, Koga took up a tight grip on my arm, halting me. He dropped the chest he was carrying and grabbed the basket in my arms. That followed the chest gracelessly to the ground.

"Don't. Please, Koga, just-"

Still ignoring my pleas, the Wolf pulled me to him, his muscular arms wrapping around me and holding me close. Not too much taller than me, he was the perfect height for me to rest my face into the crook of his neck, trying to hide away on a more physical level.

"Just cry." His voice was gruff, but his hold was warm as he drew me closer.

I wasn't strong enough to even try to pretend that this wasn't what I needed. In Koga's protective hold, I fell apart, letting loose all the emotion that bombarded me. The fear the guilt, the hatred. All of it was purged into tears that streaked down my cheeks and over Koga's neck. He rubbed my back slowly as I sobbed, above the top rim of the armour I wore. I could feel the heat of his hand through the thin layers of my kimono.

The heat, that reminder that I had someone there for me as I felt myself falling apart, made this breakdown so much... better than any I had before. I wasn't so much in the habit of letting my emotion get the best of me. I'd only let myself cry a handful of times in my adult years. Letting things get the better of me was a luxury I didn't allow myself often at all, and in the times that I had, I'd never had someone. I'd always been alone, muffling my cries and trying to struggle back to a sense of normality alone.

Having someone here made me feel lighter, like I knew I would have help pulling myself back together when I was done.

So I cried. I broke apart and sobbed over the anger towards the villagers, my hatred of Ando, and the crippling guilt of knowing that I was the one that had killed all of them.

I broke, and Koga stood, holding me together with a warm hug and a gentle hand rubbing at my back.

Review corner

Buzzk97 - I don't blame you. I have a real thing for gingers but I can't deny the look dark hair and blue eyes has. Especially long dark hair. I'm just a sucker for long hair in general, man or woman. Rest assured, even if it's just to keep me happy, Koga will be losing his hair tie more than once throughout this fic.

I know I haven't really pushed Koga and Dan's relationship yet. For good reason. They'll definitely be in the friends to lovers trope, so they needed a solid base to start off on, right? But as it stands, there is a pretty big attraction between Koga and Dan even if it isn't voiced. You sort of get to see the start of that development here.

I love these two and how awkward they're going to be after this chapter. I think I just have a thing for making my characters suffer through embarrassment and awkwardness. I'm so not sorry for it.

I do have a bit of not so stellar news for yall. My writing has slowed down drastically. I'm going through some personal shit that's not so easy to deal with, and while writing is a good distraction, it's also very hard to write when you're distracted. So my chapters may be a lot slower in the coming weeks. At the point of posting this, I don't even have chapter twelve entirely written, and I've just scraped to chapter thirteen of Miasma. I don't want to take a break, because honestly writing is probably the best thing to distract me, but please be patient with me, if I don't post every day on one fic or another like I have been doing.

Thank you and I'll see you next time.