Doobedoo we are back!

Back to some nice original Wofie plot before Naraku gets his mitts on the Wolves and destroys our hearts. That'll be happening in the next couple chapters

On another note, I just started an InuYasha fic called Catch The Rain if you're interested in checking that out. That one will be much meatier than this fic is, and is something I'm really excited to be writing. I also have a loose schedule for stories written up on my profile, if you're interested to see what will be posting when, my health permitting.

Now, onward to the Wolves!

In The Jaws Of The Wolf

Chapter Eighteen

Things changed after the war.

The list of all the little things that changed in the days after the war would be inexhaustible. Nothing felt the same. Wolves talked to me more, welcomed me to sit with them as we ate. Joked with me more. I truly felt like one of them, in a way that I hadn't quite in the short time I had been with them beforehand.

Ginta, in a quiet moment when we were put on guard duty together, had told me that he felt something similar when he and Koga had first arrived in this pack. There was a divide between them, where he felt like an outsider, someone that didn't belong. It wasn't until he, Hakkaku and Akari had encountered a Bird of Paradise during a hunting run and he'd helped fight them that he felt like he was really one of the pack.

"There's just something about fighting together that brings you together," he said, leaning against the spear he had ground into the dirt as he looked up at the moon.

"Yeah," I had agreed quietly, also looking up at the beautiful moon.

Fighting with these men had brought me closer to them. We had all had each other's backs during the war. No man was left behind if we could help it, and that mentality had spread past the fight. Instead of sitting in a corner with just a few Wolves and everyone's broken clothing for company, I was dragged out into the fold, people started to help me out more.

I wasn't alone in a crowded room anymore.

This was the family I had denied Kagome's offer for. I couldn't ask for any better.

One thing that had changed for the worst was Koga.

After that jovial post-war moment we had shared about decking the half-demon that had killed our kin, he had fallen into quiet again. Instead of going out and scouting, or hunting, he took to brooding in various places in the den. He rarely left the cave, and didn't often respond when someone talked to him.

I'd quickly been volunteered as his keeper, seeing as I was about the only one he didn't snap at when I got close to him. I got a lot of growling from him when I approached with food or a change of bandages, that he often just unraveled and tossed aside not long after I wrapped them. Koga was in a mood, and it was bringing a lot of the pack down.

By the third day, though, he had taken to letting some wolves come close without growling or snapping at them. That was a start. Not a good start, but a start none-the-less.

"Let. Me. Go! Let me go!" I struggled on my kidnapper's shoulder, screaming and pounding on his back as he dragged me through the den. "No!"

Around Hakkaku and I, Wolves laughed and jeered.

"Careful, Hakkaku," Akari called from his position lounging against a large stalagmite besides his brother. He lifted the lacquered sakazuki in his hand, a big grin on his stupid handsome face. "She might punch your face off like she did that half-demon."

That just had more Wolves laughing.

"Yeah, Hakkahu," I replied, pounding harder on his back, rattling the chain slung around his torso. "I'll melt your face off and make you look just as ugly as Akari."

A low ooooh ran through the cave.

Akari snorted. "Dunk her twice for me, Hakkaku."

The Wolf hauling me through the den cackled, shrugging deeply so he jostled me on his shoulder. "Can do, Akari!"

"Traitor!" I yelled out to my mate.

"Love you," he called back.

I jerked in Hakkaku's grip, managing to unbalance the Wolf, but not quite escaping his hold. Damn. "Horse shit! If you loved me, you wouldn't be letting him do this to me!"

Akari leaned against the almost-drunk Joji, smirking wider. "You did this to yourself."

While that may have had some small tiny inkling of truth in it, I wasn't even going to actually say that out loud and incriminate myself. I wasn't stupid enough to give anyone a reason to go after me. Especially not Hakkaku, who was pretty happy to go after me on a hunch. A correct one, but a hunch never-the-less. If others decided to just go off a hunch, I would be screwed.

A loud squeal escaped me when we went through the waterfall, cold water rushing down around me, seeping into my kimono and making the fur I wore heavy. That didn't do anything to deter Hakkaku, who simply hoisted me from over his shoulder and dangled me over the side of the cliff jutting down into the water by my ankles.

I let out a very wolf-like whimper, trying to hold my skirt up against my thighs to stop anyone from seeing what was under it. There was as big of an audience out here as there was inside, and already people were laughing at us. "Hakkaku!"

"It serves you right," he replied, glaring down at me as he shook me by my ankles.

I very nearly cracked and laughed.

That was until Hakkaku's eyes bulged, and he jerked, wobbling precariously. That had me shaking, and very nearly hitting the side of the cliff. I let out a short shriek, bracing myself to hit the cliff. "Hakkaku! Watch what you're doing! If you drop me, I'll kill you!"

He, luckily, managed to right himself without doing any harm to me, or dropping either of us in the chilly water beneath us.

From over his shoulder, a familiar face appeared. Koga stood with his brows furrowed together and his hands on his waist. "What are you two idiots- Woah."

An incredulous look was thrown at Hakkaku, and I very nearly cracked again.

It was good to see Koga out of the den, though I knew very well that he was likely just out here doing his business before he holed up in a prime brooding spot again. That's all he ever left the den for nowadays. Still, this was an actual conversation happening, and that as better than any of us had gotten from him in a while.

"What happened to you?" our leader asked.

Hakkaku glared down at me, shaking me threateningly again. "She did."

Guilty.

Not that I was going to actually admit to that. I wasn't totally stupid. Everyone knew. In fact, some wolves had even watched me. That still didn't mean I was going to put it out there and accept any sort of punishment for that. Not a chance in Hell. I would stay as blissfully punishment-free as I could. Not an easy task, given my current state dangling above the den's pool, but I would still try and maintain that.

"What did she do to you?"

Prank culture, I had found out, was a big part of den life. I'd noticed it a little in my time in the den, but I hadn't been a part of it until recently. My involvement had started when someone had asked me to sew a hidden pouch into Kenichi's pelts while I was fixing them. Not an unusual thing, until he'd explained that he planned to shove a nice load of wolf poop into the hidden pocket so a rancid smell would follow the Wolf around. It hadn't come cheaply, but I was able to be bribed to do it.

It got out pretty quick that I was involved in that little prank, and since then I'd been dragged into the pack-wide prank war.

I'd found guts in my fixing pile, fish heads in my bed (though Akari was pretty certain that one was for him, after a prank he'd pulled on Ginta), and I'd been dunked in the pool more than once. Of course, I paid people back for any prank they dared to try and pull on me.

Particularly the last one.

A pile of wolf poop had been left right at the edge of my nest after Akari had left for patrol. I'd stepped right in as I emerged for the morning. Some asking around led right to Hakkaku. So, I schemed and plotted and waited.

With some help from Nao to find some berries out in the woods while I was out hunting with Ginta and Akari, I started enacting my revenge plot. Most of the berries had been eaten by birds already, but I managed to collect enough for what I wanted. I stuffed a small pouch I'd sewn to the brim with them, and carried them back home tied to my hip. When night fell, I crawled away from a dead-to-the-world Akari, climbed over Nao, who had started camping outside the entrance to our little nest, and picked through the sleeping demons around me until I found the snoring body I wanted.

Hakkaku was a deep sleeper. That was perfect for me.

I'd crawled back into Akari's arms not long later with my hands stained with berry juice and a smug little smirk.

It had taken Hakkaku most of the morning to realise why the pack was laughing at him when he walked by them. I'd heard his shout the moment he got a look at himself in the water and saw his usually brilliant pale hair was pink from inside the den. It had taken a little while for him to come after me. In that time I imagined he had tried to clean the berry juice out.

The pink stain in his hair showed that any attempt clearly hadn't worked, which led to him enacting revenge the best way he knew how.

Dunking me in the pool.

"The pink looks good on him, doesn't it, Koga?" I goaded. That earned me another fierce shake. I could feel the blood rushing to my head the more time I spent upside down. I was starting to feel a little dizzy, honestly.

Still worth it.

Koga's brow twitched, though I wasn't quite sure whether it was in annoyance or if he was trying to hold back his amusement at our antics. "You two are a couple of real idiots, you know that? So childish."

Boy, was that hypocrisy I could smell, or had someone sewn a secret poop pouch in my pelts?

Neither Hakkaku or I could say anything, though, because with a little smirk on his face, he gave the other Wolf a shove, sending Hakkaku and I both into the pool. I screamed Koga's name on the way down.

I was going to get the bastard for that.

Detangling from Hakkaku's limbs, I surfaced, coughing up water.

"Keep it down, will ya?" Koga called down to us, twisting a finger in his ear. "You make so much ruckus. I'm going back inside."

He turned to leave, leaving me soaked and fuming in the pool as Hakkaku surfaced next to him, pink hair plastered to his face just as much as the look of shock he wore.

I couldn't help it. This time I really did break down laughing at him.

Akari nuzzled into my hair, holding the sakazuki in his hand to my lips. I took a sip and relaxed against him, eyes sliding shut. It had been a long day, but the moon was coming out and we were all starting to settle.

My mate and his brother had both been enjoying their day of relaxing and drinking. Joji, particularly, who was drunk enough to not even comment as I came to join the two of them. I'd started off sat beside the redheaded Wolf, but pretty soon I had been dragged into his lap and kissed and nuzzled until we had settled comfortably together, my cheek pressed to his armour-free chest.

"Keh," Joji grunted.

I expected him to start on me, but when I twisted around to face him, he wasn't even looking at me. His glare was trained on someone else. Koga, who was sat in his alcove wearing that same frustrating look he always wore these days.

"Look at him. That lout's really starting to piss me off with all that stupid sulking."

Even drunk, Akari had a smart head on his shoulders. "Careful, Joji," he warned.

The three of us knew that Koga could find any excuse to get rid of Joji. He hadn't, yet, and that was a blessing, but Joji was a hostile, and hostiles didn't live long in the presence of men like Koga, who did what they could to reach the top and get what they wanted. Koga had already reached the top, at the expense of Joji's father. Akari had already long-since reconciled with his father's death, but the wound was still raw for Joji. Now Koga had to stay there, and the only way to do that was to prove his worth and keep threats in line. or gone.

If I realised that, then Joji had to.

He knew the pack and he knew the people in it far better than I ever hoped to. He didn't like Koga, but he knew him.

"Why should I be careful huh?" He threw an arm out toward the subject of his ranting. "Look at how pitiful he is. Didn't even lose the fight and he's been acting like life isn't worth living. I bent the knee to follow a man, not a bruised ego."

That was... well, fair enough. I wanted to find a flaw in that and protect Koga, just a single one, but the Joji wasn't the only one dealing with the frustration of Koga's wallowing. We were all mourning and suffering after that battle, but we all were slowly but surely moving on and returning to the daily wear and tear of life. It wasn't easy, not for any of us, but Koga was taking the weight of the guilt on his shoulders, and letting it consume him. For such a strong man, he was looking weak to all of us.

"All wounds heal given time," Akari pointed out.

Another cup of sake was pressed against my lips, and I drank happily, enjoying the fuzz that was starting to set in. I didn't drink often at home. When sake was around, I tended to avoid the area. Ando had been a violent man when drinking.

"Or they fester," Joji replied morbidly.

After a long pause, Akari relented. "Or they fester," he agreed.

Conversation lulled.

The arm holding me up shifted me slightly. "What's wrong with you? You're being particularly quiet."

I shrugged and hummed, nuzzling into his warmth. He was so warm. I loved the heat Akari always gave off. Particularly in the dead of night when the den air ran cold. Even in the midst of a hot summer we didn't often get muggy nights here. The air was cool, which was a nice reprieve from the heat of the day, but became prickling and awful in the early hours. That was when I loved Akari the most.

"Quiet drunk," he spoke knowingly, nuzzling against my head. "If I knew some saké was all it would take to keep you quiet, I'd have gotten you drunk a long time ago."

I giggled against his neck.

My eyelids were heavy when I opened my eyes again. I had no idea when it was, but it was clearly still late. I was still curled up in Akari's lap, and we were both still where we had been when we were drinking with Joji, who was also still here, lying on the floor and snoring quietly. Under my ear, Akari, too, was snoring. He wasn't usually a snorer.

I grumbled, rubbing at my tired eyes and pushed myself to stand. Akari's arm slid from around my waist to rest back on his own leg.

I wanted bed.

I took one step, staggered, then paused.

Still drunk.

Part of me wanted to just curl back up to Akari and sleep it off in his arms.

Instead, I carried on forwards.

Something big and furry pressed against my left after just a few steps. My hand stroked Nao's furry head gently as he guided me through the dark room full of bodies. We managed to break through the worst of the crowd without stepping on or waking anyone.

I'd usually turn left past Ginta's sleeping form to get to my own nest, but tonight I turned right.

Koga wasn't sleeping when I stepped up onto his furred nest in his alcove. It was too dark to really see that, but I couldn't hear any snoring. Koga snored like a beast. I'd never heard someone else snore quite as bad as he did. I'd giggled with Akari once that he was single because anyone that slept at his side would end up deaf very quickly. Akari had howled at that.

"Dan?" the Wolf murmured when I dropped to my knees and shuffled closer.

I sat against the wall, shuffling so my side was pressed to his. His arm raised, dropping around my shoulders a moment later, letting me cuddle against his shoulder.

"You're still drunk," he accused.

"Mhmm," I agreed in a quiet breath.

I was almost asleep again in just a few quiet moments, but I tried to keep myself from falling asleep just yet. "It's okay, y'know?"

His arm squeezed my shoulders. "What are you going on about?"

"That you're hurting." I don't know where the words were coming from, but I let them flow. "It's okay to hurt, but you can't just hurt. Gotta live, for the ones we lost and for you."

I nuzzled closer to his shoulder.

Even with the musk of sweat on his skin, he smelt good. Like the forest, earthy and rich. Like trees.

"Promise you'll get better?" My words were starting to slur together. My eyelids wouldn't open now if I tried.

He gave me nothing but a silence, but his arm did tighten around me again, pulling me just a little closer to him. I nuzzled into his shoulder with a little smile, enjoying his warmth and relaxing against him.

So tired.

"You talk a lot of crap when you're drunk. Go to sleep."

I hummed against his skin. "Promise, Koga?"

He grunted.

But I was sure I heard a whispered 'promise' in return from him through the fuzzy depths of drunkenness and sleep finally taking its hold.

Information Time

Sakazuki - A sakazuki is a type of cup that saké is served in. The sakazuki is differentiated from other saké cups by its flat shape, almost like a tiny plate rather than an actual cup

Review Corner

orangeporqupine - Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. It was a difficult and emotional one to write, but I'm happy I managed to do the emotions in it justice. The Nao scene was a great scene to write, too. I really love Nao. That boy's sticking around forever

Blu3b3rryT3a - Aye, things are slowly falling into place with the wolves, even if no one's quite noticing it yet. Trust me, Koga will notice eventually and it'll be a fantastic moment for them. Yes! Writing the sucker punch was so satisfying. No one will ever be able to tell me that InuYasha didn't deserve that. I love that boy, but some of the stuff he did in the series was downright awful

Buzzk97 - Aye she did! Dan's a scary one to piss off, even amongst demons. Don't mess with her.

This one kind of felt like a transitionary chapter, but I felt it was so important to write. There was a lot of fun in this chapter, and some deep emotion. It was a fun chapter.

The Koga moment was such a heartwarming moment. They'll have a lot more of those in the future. Look out for them!