Her ass landed on the dirt, no magic, no portal, just dirt. But the pain from falling on the hard ground was quickly smothered by the fact that the well had not worked. Her lip curled trying to prevent the sob that was quickly welling up in her throat, fat teardrops threatened to drop, as she curled up into her knees, a strangled cry coming out. She felt a light thud as kouga leapt into the well, he couldn't stop himself, and hugged her. His yokai flaring when he heard her cry, GO TO HER it had growled to him, her sadness washed over him, he could smell it, he could feel it as if her sense of loss also belonged to him.

She didn't say anything, she let it out as he held her, until her sobs slowly faded and her cheeks were damp from crying, and then she felt tired, extremely tired and she leaned against him, her head leaning against his chest, he had been in an uncomfortable position for so long, squatting in front of her holding her, but it didn't matter, he would stay there forever if that's what it took to comfort her.

"Kouga?" she said finally looking up at him, her sad puffy eyes stared at him. His yokai was practically howling. Anything she demanded, he would get her.

"Yes kagome?" he moved back, to give her distance.

"Let's go home." she sighed, getting up, her legs hurting from sitting on the ground

He nodded, "get on," she was about to protest when he stopped her, "come on. I know you're exhausted, it's okay...I can get you in without you running into anyone."

She smiled wobbly, "thank you...thank you so much." she got on his back wrapping her legs lightly around his waist, had this been any other occasion he would have been grinning ear to ear, but her sadness was just too overwhelming.

Just as he had promised, they went through another entrance that led into a room, this room, or den as she thought looked very different, it was big, a bit bigger than her room, they had crossed into a hidden cave that had a hot spring in it, but had a small makeshift bridge, and then they had gotten into the room. She looked around seeing some armour mounted on a stand, it was crassly made but fit its purpose. She noticed a huge bed tucked away in the corner, with a bunch of soft animal pelts on it.

She felt her eyes slowly close, she was completely drained and she just wanted sleep.

"We're here kagome, let's get you some food," he was about to let her go when he sensed that she was not awake, "kagome? Are you awake?" he went over to the bed and gently laid her down.

He stared down at her, feeling quite the predicament. This was his bed. Kagome was on his bed. Kagome was sleeping on his bed if anyone walked in, it would look quite bad on his part, of course anyone and everyone that knew him knew that he and ayame were only together for show, he had never actually claimed her. This was bad. He stared up at the ceiling sighing, and grabbed her gently, as to not wake her and walked towards her room, and laid her down on her bed. He felt her exhaustion, he rubbed his eyes. He needed a walk.

"And these are some of the springs we use from time to time," ayame gestured out at the springs, "most wolves don't use it but if there's a special event sometimes they bathe, mostly the women to clean our hair," she cocked her head to the side, when was the last time she had bathed? She had a new rice water bottle that had been gifted to her from when she first got married, she could always add some flowers to it to make it nice, maybe that would spark some interest from her husband.

Ezume nodded, trying to find interest in the tour, but he had been distracted by the she wolf. Ayame was gorgeous, so why couldn't her mate see it?

"Can I ask you something?" he was going to say it.

"Yes of course," she nodded, expecting a question about their tour

"What do you see in kouga?"

Well that question caught her off guard, "I'm sorry?" She tried not to ask defensilvly.

"It's just…" he paused trying to think of how to form his question, ezume was not exactly known to be a thinker when it came to asking questions, often being blunt, "don't take this as any was of being offense to you, but what do you see in that guy? He doesn't treat ya good, and he's chasing after that bi-..after that human what's so great about her? I don't see it!" he really didn't, that woman was as plain as could be.

She tried thinking of her response, "well...he's...he's a good leader, he's smart, and handsome...but… it's true that he doesn't love me.." she admitted, "but i love him...and I...I..he's my first love. I'm hoping he will change" she didn't respond to the kagome question, even her name was somewhat of a sensitive thing to her.

Ezume turned away from her, not looking back at her "all I'm saying is that if you were my woman, I wouldn't be after someone else, especially a human," he spat, "you're gorgeous ayame, why doesn't he see it?"

Ayame was at a loss of words, "you're gorgeous"

It was nighttime when Kagome awoke, she felt a headache, probably from all the crying, and then she felt something else: a cramp. Of course, perfect timing! Maybe that's why her emotions had been so off lately.

"Can't I catch a break?" she muttered, as long as she was not bleeding tonight she would be fine, of course the bleeding part would become an issue later. She needed a bath, quickly she got up and went to the springs.

Kouga groaned, both in annoyance and in greed. His bed reeked of her, goddamn it he shouldn't have laid her down on his bed because now he was suffering from it. Her sweet smell of honeysuckle made his mouth water, it took all of his effort to not inhale her scent over and over on his bed like a creep.

FUCK he knew sleep was going to be difficult tonight. After tossing and turning in his bed he decided he couldn't stay in his room, he had to get out, he had to get away from her smell, it would do no good, especially for his yokai, who ached for her already.

"goddamnit ," he rubbed his temple getting up, he needed to go out on a walk, he got up and walked out.

Kagome sighed as she slipped into the hot water, this feels so good, she thought, her back had started to hurt no doubt from her upcoming cycle. She rubbed her hair and her legs trying to get the dirt off of her from earlier. She dipped her head in when she heard a noise, a crunch of a stick. She cursed inwardly, why did she have to be outside at night alone? All the demons were out, not that she couldn't handle them, but she didn't want to fight naked!

"Who's there!" she demanded, trying to concentrate on her miko energy.

She saw a shadow from far away coming a bit closer only turn around quickly

"Sorry! Just me, sorry! I didn't see anything! I swear!" kouga cried out, he was blushing insanely it wasn't the miko's energy that scared him even though she could easily wipe him out, it was his fear of making her upset with him.

"I..Kouga?" she covered her chest, her face turning bright red.

"Sorry! Sorry..I was just out on a walk...I'll... see you inside!"

Kagome groaned "why kami?" she dipped her head in the water, she couldn't catch a break could she?

But he had seen something, he hadn't known she was bathing, he had been in his own world trying to distract himself thinking of anything other than kagome, when he had walked to the springs, a warm bath always calmed him. He had seen just a sliver of her breasts, her hair covering most of them, but he saw the soft curves of them. His yokai was howling again after that, which is why he ran off before he took her right there and then like an animal. But now his plans of a hot bath changed, he needed a cold lake. He took off running to the nearest one and jumped in, the cold water instantly calming it down, he sighed in relief trying to shake the sight he had seen.

Ayame awoke to the sound of muffled voices, one sounding alarmed, she got up groggily, hoping it was not demons nearby, whatever demon was nearby must have either been stupid or not worth the fight if they were near their territory, but nevertheless she went to find her husband to talk to him about the voices. But when she walked into her husband's room, she didn't find him. Instead she smelled something, it smelled familiar, it was a faint trace around the room, but it was stronger near kouga's bed. She looked around, not sensing him nearby and went to his bed, leaning down and sniffed. She stumbled back when she realized what the smell was, of who the smell was, Kagome. Her fist balled up and she ran outside the cave, angry tears clouding her eyes, not realizing she was nearing a cliff, WHY HER? Why fucking her? Why kouga! Not even she, WIFE of Kouga had ever laid in his bed, and although the scent didn't give off any sexual vibes, her heart was hurting, she knew kouga had had others before, but she was never one of them, yet her thoughts trailed off to images of kouga bedding kagome.

"Why! Why! Wh-ah!" she felt herself falling, she had gotten too close to the cliff's edge in her upset state, when an arm grabbed her, yanking her back roughly, she grunted as she fell onto someone who had crushed her fall.

"What the hell is wrong with you woman!" ezume screeched at her, as they were getting up, he had seen her run out, wondering what was going on when he realized she was nearing the edge, she turned around with tears running down her face, "shit I'm sorry ayame! Don't cry!" damn his stupid mouth

"I..m sorry," she hiccupped,"just having a tough day," she said, wiping away the tears that kept flowing.

"Kouga giving you a hard time?" he asked gesturing her to sit down, she sat down, her head hanging down, and he took it as a yes

"Ayame, look you don't deserve that kind of treatment," he said looking up at the sky ignoring his flaming face, "you deserve to be happy." he sighed, carefully thinking of how to proceed "look...I know this is out of line, but… I like you okay" he hadn't turned to look at her, "I've liked you since we were cubs...if you ever get tired of him, just find me." he got up turning to look down at her, "I'm leaving in a day or so, my clan has been without me and they need me, but you're always welcome there." he nodded at her.

She sat there for a while, contemplating his confession, I like you. Of course she had been confessed to before, it wasn't her first one, but she had always turned them away, naively thinking of Kouga's promise, but this was the first one to make her feel...well anything frankly. It was subtle, and she wasn't sure she knew, but there was a small flutter in her heart at his confession. She thought of how different Kouga and Ezume were, and how different they treated the people around them. Kouga never treated her badly, per say but in the end all he treated her as and viewed her as a friend, even after their unity, that hadn't changed. But she had seen how he treated the miko, he was softer with her, and took her thoughts and feelings more into consideration, kagome could ask him to do anything, and he would, no questions asked, but with ayame? He would hesitate. Kouga wasn't going to change for her, at least in a romantic sense, but should she make peace with that? She shook her head, no, he was her partner, she couldn't just leave him, because she loved him. Finally she got up and headed back to her dwelling, she was tired and needed sleep.

Kagome woke up to a sharp pain, clawing at her stomach, damn cramps. With the quick changes in her life, she had forgotten to keep track of her cycle. She needed to go check how bad she was bleeding, and figure out where to get some cloth, oh how she missed the modern era of having pads and tampons at her disposal. This time of the month was also when her and Inuyasha would get...intimate as her desire grew. At first he was somewhat disgusted as he had hated the smell of blood, but he had gotten over it, after all he was getting something out of it too, but he had been less willing to lately but now she knew why.

She got up, ugh she needed new clothes too, and unfortunately everything was at her old home with him. She walked out of the room and bumped into kouga.

Her distress had woken him up out of his slumber, sensing her discomfort, he got up and headed to her room, not putting on his armour, he was about to announce his presence when she ran into him when he smelled blood, her blood, and he panicked.

"Kagome? Are...are you okay?" he didn't see any visible wounds on her and she seemed quite normal

"Oh hey kouga, yea I'm okay, i was about to head out...to uh um I need to take a walk!" she was not about to explain to him what she needed to do.

"But you're bleeding!" he blurted out

"Ah," she laughed nervously, she shouldn't be too surprised that he picked up on that "yea...I'm fine, it's just that time of the month for me, you know human women have a cycle once a month…" the subject was making her uncomfortable, of all people she did not want to discuss this with was with kouga, she sure as hell never discussed it with inuyasha and the subject made him flustered.

He nodded, understanding "you're in heat." he said, point blank

She blushed furiously, "wellll, yes I guess that's a way to say it" he acted as if this was the most normal conversation, but it made sense this was kouga, caring kouga, the kouga that actually listened, the handsome kouga. She stopped herself mentally, staring at his face deep in thought, he sure was handsome, tall, tan with eyes that seemed to go from light blue, to deep ocean, to stormy eyes depending on his mood.

"I know humans and wolves have different things, but I know some of the women here have some roots that could help, I think they make it into hot water," he said, making a face, that hot water concation tasted absolutely disgusting but it always helped with any pain after a fight. He felt a yawn escape him, and he stretched out his arms.

Up until then she hadn't noticed his half dressed state, she blushed as he stretched, he was so well toned out, every muscle seemed to move as he stretched his arms out, his tan skin making him seem more beautiful, Oh kami help me, she thought as she saw the bulge of his biceps he's just a friend, just a friend. Innocent thoughts here kagome, here he is trying to help you and you're practically undressing the rest of him she looked down to avert her eyes but she saw the gentle v on his hips, and then she felt it pool in the pit of her stomach, desire .

Kouga smelled it instantly, groaning inwardly, when her scent turned into something more spicy and sweet like cinnamon. He practically growled, god her scent became intoxicating, he wanted to grab her and take her to his bed and- he stopped himself, disgusted at his thoughts. Kagome was a woman, not a thing to be desired, he mentally smacked himself, trying to calm down his yokai.

The two blushed at their own thoughts.

"Yea i'll go find someone! Thanks kouga!" she walked past him, wanting to sprint away, damn her thoughts.

He thought about leaving for a week or perhaps finding a hut for kagome to live in for the time being, but how would he explain that to her? He shook his head, he would have to bear it. Kouga groaned and rubbed his eyes. For at least a week he was going to have to find a way to calm himself. This was going to be the hardest week for him.