Hello all!

Guys, I've just started playing Secret of the Cursed Mask, and just found out about Robai's existence. I'm so sad I didn't know about him earlier. I would have loved to do something with him in this fic. I do have another Koga fic planned for when I finish ITJOTW, though, and you can bet Koga's cute furry ass that I'm making sure Robai is a part of his story in that fic.

For now, though, enjoy the latest chapter for ITJOTW, sadly sans the perfection that is Robai

In The Jaws Of The Wolf

Chapter Nineteen

I flinched away from a wet sensation on my cheek, pushing away the source and groaning when it gave a ripping snore into my ear.

Koga barely even reacted as I wriggled away from him, slipping out from under the arm around my shoulders, which fell back against his side heavily. He just snored on, though, even as I crawled away from him and off his bed of furs. As I stood, I flinched, hands flying up to rub at my eyes. I was definitely feeling that saké this morning. Why had I let Akari feed me so much? I hadn't so much as lifted a finger to try and drink all afternoon.

A deep grimace curled my lips when my hand slid away from my eyes and down my cheek, catching the drool Koga had left on my skin, when his cheek had been pressed against the side of my head.

"You're so disgusting," I told him in a whisper.

He didn't so much as twitch at the accusation, but I liked to believe that he had heard and he knew.

I turned my head to look towards my own nest, wanting to curl up with Akari to sleep off the crumminess I was feeling, but instead I turned left towards the waterfall hiding us from the outside world.

I bit my tongue as I passed through it. That was cold; something that was awful first thing in the morning, especially when you were already feeling gross. Why did the waterfall have to cover the cave exit? Why couldn't there be some reprieve, some way of getting out without soaking yourself? Though, really, I shouldn't complain too much. That waterfall was the closest thing to a bath most of these wolves ever saw. If they didn't run through the waterfall multiple times a day, the cave would stink even worse than it already does. I wasn't so sure my nose could handle that. It could barely cope now.

It was just beginning to get light as I stretched my aching body out just out of the reach of the waterfall's spray. I marvelled, as I often did at this sight, at just how beautiful this place was. The mountains were never somewhere I had ventured before joining the pack. It was a dangerous game, getting close to wolves and demons. The mountains were full of both. No one in the village was that suicidal.

No one but me, apparently.

I'd had no idea that I would survive searching out Koga when I left Ando. I certainly hadn't thought I would end up here, as part of the tribe of demons that had terrorised my village for years.

As I walked down the dirt path that lead away from the den, I crouched to stroke along the belly of a wolf stretched out in the morning sun. He let out a lupine whine and stretched out even further, pawing the air above him.

I would never be able to explain how I got here, not in a thousand words, but I was happy I had.

I'd found a life here that I'd never thought I would. My lot in life had been caring for an unloving drunkard of a husband, working myself to the bone for our village, sewing and hunting and do all that I could. It had been a miserable half-life. Something I couldn't even begin to consider happiness in.

The rocks down to the water's edge were loose as I stepped on them, beginning a slow descent. When I did finally reach the water, I dipped my toes in and winced. Cold. Still, I began to strip of fur and hemp. As I did, wolves began to join me by the water.

I was happy, I realised, as a wolf nosed under my arm to press her head close to my body. My arm wrapped around her in a hug.

I was happy here. I had plenty of friends here now, even if some of them were more animal than others. Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku, Kenichi. Even Joji had softened to me enough that we could talk occasionally. And Akari...

Meeting Akari, I was sure I was dead. Between the Bird of Paradise that caught me - the scar of which was still fresh and red on my skin, though the wound had healed well enough - and seeing an unfamiliar Wolf that wasn't the gentle Ginta, I was sure I'd get eaten one way or another in that situation. But that hadn't happened. Instead of eating me, the Wolf had grinned at me, complimented me.

The compliments never stopped.

I slipped into the water, biting back a whine as the cold permeated me. Fuck, that was cold.

The compliments had never stopped, and then somehow...

A little smile came to my lips.

Somehow, without even realising, without trying, I had a family. A husband I loved. Friends I loved. A home I loved. Nothing could beat this feeling. Absolutely nothing.

A splash at the edge of the water I was swimming through cut through my daydreams, and it was only a few seconds before arms wrapped around me.

"Morning, beautiful."

I leaned back into a warm chest, eager to take the heat he could give me, arms riding to wrap around the back of his neck, holding him close. "Hi," I greeted back, fingers weaving through curly hair.

Kisses traveled up my neck slowly. "You smell like Koga."

"We talked last night. Well, I talked," I corrected, giving his neck an affectionate squeeze before I span in his arms and pressed against him. His long red hair was down around his shoulders. I loved it when his hair was loose like this. If I could steal his hair tie and actually get away with it, his hair would always be loose. "I was drunk enough to fall asleep on him. He drooled on me."

Akari let out a loud snort and shook with laughter he at least had the decency to try and quash. But it seemed the idea that I'd been drooled on was way too much for Akari to hold in.

I gave his ribs a hard slap as he buried his face into my neck, a pout on my lips.

It took him a while to calm down enough to stop laughing in my ear, but when he did, we just relaxed into each other's arms.

"Did you get through to him?"

I let out a little sigh. "Who knows? It's Koga." The guy was stubborn as they came. He had no idea how to give up on something when he decided that was what was happening, whether that be a good or bad thing. Would he give up on his sulking now that I had talked to him about it?

There was no way to tell but to wait and see.

Akari leaned me back slowly. "Let's get you cleaned up. I'm not thrilled that you smell like Koga."

That made me laugh. "I love you."

His returning smile was absolutely beaming.

The day, after this morning's early bath, shaped up to be a quiet one.

Patrols and guard duties weren't so intense as they had been now our main enemy was down to just a few stragglers that had escaped the slaughter of their kind at the hand of the monk in Kagome's group.

That left a lot more people a lot more time to rest and relax. Akari, who headed up a lot of guard duties, was one of those that had a lot more free time to themselves now. He spent a good amount of that time with me, and I certainly couldn't complain. We both enjoyed spending as much time as we could with each other.

This afternoon was a nice quiet day within the cave.

We sat near the cave's entrance, in the small area that Joji usually had cleared for social moments.

I had pulled my kimono from the furoshiki cloth I kept it in and was slowly working away at the face of a wolf I had added to the back. The wolves I was adding had been an addition that I'd never planned to add to the kimono. Wolves had little value in my life until recently. Now they were such a big part of my life that I couldn't even consider not adding them to the embroidered story of my life.

Opposite me, Joji and Akari were sat together cleaning weapons. They both had their cleaning kits laid out in front of them. Joji was halfway through cleaning up the tang of the katana he usually had at his hip, while Akari had taken to polishing the blade of my kaiken with intense focus.

I told him that it wasn't really necessary to keep it perfectly clean, as long as it still cut when I needed it to, but he hadn't heard any of my protests, especially when he wrestled me to get hold of the knife. I'd ended up with some particularly dark bruises on my neck during the tousle, and a growled promise for a continuation tonight that had me just a little distracted while I sewed.

The three of us existed in a quiet bubble of calm while the cave around us bubbled with conversation. Everyone was content today.

Everyone except our grand leader, who had further receded into his sulking.

My attempts to drag him from his mood last night had been totally unsuccessful, apparently. Let him keep on sulking. He was only making the pack talk and whisper when they weren't close to the leader. Something would change. I just hoped it was something for the better.

Akari looked up from my knife and dropped me a wink. He blew a kiss at me when I smiled, and I returned it with an air kiss of my own.

Besides his brother, Joji sneered in disgust.

That just earned him his own air kiss from me and an affectionate side-hug from his brother. Really, he had to know his brother by now. There was no way Joji would get anything but that reaction after that.

I think secretly he liked the affection.

Any further teasing of our brother was silenced when the sound of water splashing cut through the cave. Someone was here. A lot of someones. Unfamiliar someones, too, I realised, when I turned my head to greet them, as we often did when people came in from hunting or guard duties. I'd never seen these Wolves before. They wore black fur.

Nao gave a snort from his place beside me, his head lifting to stare at the men as they strode past us, heading straight to our sulking leader.

"Who are they?" I asked in a whisper.

"Northerners," Joji replied in a low growl, setting down the cleaned tang in his hands.

Akari looked equally as unhappy with their presence. He also set down the blade in his hands, glaring at the backs of the new men in our home. "What are they doing here?"

Northerners. I'd learned from Ginta that there were four main factions of the Wolf Demon Tribes - the four major packs, North, West, South and our pack in the East - with smaller packs dotted around between. If these men were Northerners, they were from the main Northern pack, right? Why were they down here in the East?

Akari and Joji's aggression towards the newcomers made me instantly wary of them. The silence in the cave was just putting me further on edge. No one was happy with the newbies being here.

"Koga," the largest of the group spoke, his voice the lowest and most gravelly voice I had ever heard. It carried through the whole cave. "We've come to talk about jewel shards."

Jewel shards?

I perked up in interest, leaning towards the little gathering as the Northerners sat down before our leaders. Akari's arm swept out, pushing me back slightly. When my eyes flickered up to his face, he pressed his finger against his lips and shook his head slowly.

Stay quiet. Got it.

"There's someone who possesses a huge sacred jewel shard," the large Wolf continued.

The smaller Wolf by his side continued on. "He's a Lord of a Castle. I know it's hard to believe but we're not joking about this guy."

A Lord of a castle? That was hard to believe.

Between the few Elders in the tribe, I'd been filled in on the missing knowledge I had about the jewel that I could see and sense.

Jewel shards did nothing for the strength of a human. The Lord had to be human if he was in a castle. What would a human want with jewel shards? Not just one or two, apparently, if he had a huge shard. It made the jewel easy pickings. A human castle against a tribe of Wolf demons? The odds weren't in the human's favour. I'd seen exactly what just a pack of wolves could do to a human settlement. A tribe of demons? Humans would stand no chance unless they were particularly well armed.

"Let's combine forces and join the Northern and Eastern tribes together," the big one added. "Then we can storm the castle! We'll take the jewel shard and divvy it up equally."

Koga stared at them for a long moment, his expression stiff.

In the mood that he was in, there was no way he'd go for an alliance like that. He was too busy trying to nurse the bruise to his ego, and the slow-healing tears on his arm from the Bird of Paradise leader. He wouldn't do anything else until those wounds were both put to rest for good. One would be easier to put to rest. The other...

He was going to go after InuYasha.

Was that why he was so quiet? Was he planning?

"Well, Koga?" the smaller Northern prompted. "You wanna join us?"

Koga's response was very much predicted when he blew them off with a: "Sorry, not interested." Their explosion of surprised responses was enough to get the Wolves around the cave whispering. "I have something I have to take care of first, before I do anything else."

"What's he planning?" Akari questioned in a whisper of his own.

My gaze turned up to my mate, then back to Koga. "He's going to go after InuYasha," I whispered back. I was sure that was it. Koga was a pretty one-track mind sort of person. It was usually pretty easy to figure out what was going on with him and what he was planning. InuYasha had slighted him by taking the life of the Bird of Paraside Koga was after, and killing our wolves. Koga needed to make that right.

Both Akari and Joji made quiet noises in the back of their throats at my answer.

The Northerners gave up pretty quickly when they, too, realised that he wasn't going to move on this.

As they left, the whispers pitched up. Amongst the whisperers was Joji, who's voice had pitched into a low growl. "What the fuck is wrong with him? We're losing a chance at getting jewel shards now?"

"He's injured, Joji, protecting you from the Birds," I pointed out. "All of us. What's he supposed to do? Go back into a fight with one arm not working?"

Joji's glare was fierce, but I didn't flinch away this time. The more time I spent around him, the less scared I was of him. His bark was worse than his bite.

"He denied them for everyone."

I rolled my eyes, looking to Akari for help. His eyes were firm on the waterfall. I nudged him. His blink was sluggish, but he came back to the world quickly. "Whu?"

Well, kind of quickly.

"Your brother's pissed at Koga."

"What's new?" his dry voice questioned, but he did turn his attention to Joji. "Have you see the state he's in? He can't fight for shards right now."

"I already told him that."

Joji didn't want to hear our commentary, though. He pushed past Akari, heading straight for Koga.

Here we go...

"If we don't join them then the Northern tribe will get all of the sacred jewel shards." Joji spoke loudly, a clear challenge to our leader's decision that had Akari and I wincing. This wasn't going to end well.

Koga huffed, looking less than amused as he turned away from Joji. "Let them go. It doesn't matter."

Oh Koga, no. That was just gonna piss him off more. Joji didn't need any more reason to be pissed off at Koga. He had way too many already. No one could escape Joji's dislike of Koga. It was clear as day.

Joji was steaming. "Well it matters to me!" He threw out his arms.

My breath caught in my throat. Was this the day?

It had been in the air for longer than I had been here. I'd heard from just about anyone that I talked with that there had been bets going on when Joji would challenge Koga for his place as leader. The tension was thick no matter which way people looked at it.

Was this the incident that brought it to its head?

Koga was injured right now. Even with two jewel shards, this could be Joji's one chance to take him. Koga was strong, but injury was weakness and people like Joji could pick out weaknesses and tear them apart. I'd seen him fight, admired how brutal he could be in a fight from afar in the war, and protected him when I needed to.

"Akari," I hissed, reaching out for him. He needed to do something to stop his brother.

Joji surprised me, though. Instead of issuing a challenge, he spoke. Angry, but not starting a fight. "I'm gonna go with them."

A few other Wolves agreed with him.

"Go ahead," Koga snorted. "I could care less. If you wanna leave, I'm not gonna stop you."

I slumped back as Joji yelled out his intent to the rest of the cave.

That... was it? No big fight, no challenges?

That was... That was good. I expected there to be an all-out brawl between the two of them. Joji had spoke out more than once about doing it. At this point Akari just laughed at him, like it was a big joke. This was the one moment I could have seen Joji going for Koga and possibly having the chance to win. Was the fact that he hadn't proof that he was giving up on that need to beat Koga?

Or was it something worse?

Akari's face was drawn into a tense look. He clearly wasn't as relieved as I was.

What was going to happen now?

Information Time

Hemp - Hemp is a plant from the cannabis family. It grew rampant in Japan for a long long time. Before tobacco came to Japan it was smoked regularly by people. Its plant matter was used throughout Japanese history for many purposes, too. Among them, making very sturdy fabric for kimonos, kosodes and the like. Lots of clothing was made from hemp, because it's just so durable

Review Corner

Blu3b3rryT3a - Aye, she's a very cute drunk. I don't think it'll happen too often, though. I can't really see Koga drinking. He just doesn't strike me as the type. Dan's the type to drink socially, but not search it out herself. The prank wars are super fun and will be a thing for many a moon to come. We love the prank wars. I'm sure you all will too!

TheVulcanNara - I don't intend to kill Nao! That boy's safe. I can be heartless when I'm writing sometimes, but not heartless enough to kill the bestest puppy in the series. He is safe forever. Promise. Oooh you're asking the real questions now, though. Will he notice that the things he loves about Kagome are things he notices in Dan first? Yes he will. I won't tell you exactly how or when, but it'll happen and it'll be quite a moment when he realises. I'm excited for it, at least. I won't give away too much more now. We're getting to the bit where important emotional things are really happening now, and things really develop from there

Plot ho! Again.

The next chapter is going to be a rough one for everyone. I hope you're all ready for it. I know I'm not. But hopefully we can all help each other through it