~~Day Three~~

For the second time, Kagome awoke alone in Kouga's sleeping area. She frowned, what time was it and when had Kouga left? She had meant to wake up to see him off, if only because he had promised to look for Inuyasha today. She sighed and pushed herself up into a kneeling position. A few pieces of straw fell from her hair and she let out a slight groan. I'd never get used to this, she thought as she ran her fingers through her hair to get rid of anything else that might have attached itself while she slept. As she went to straighten her school uniform out, she noted it wasn't as clean as she would like. She would have to head back through the well soon to have it washed… Maybe she should find a different outfit to wear while she was here in the past, with all the fighting she got involved in her shirt never stayed white for very long.

She meandered her way to the front of the cave. It seemed like the pack had already settled into their daily routine. At the mouth of the cave she took a quick peek at the sky and was shocked by how high it was. It had to be late morning already. She was so used to getting up early, both here to continue the hunt for Shikon Jewel shards and at home to get to school on time. How had she slept in so late? After a moment of thinking, she figured it was for the exact reasons she was shocked at being up late. Maybe her body had taken the opportunity to catch up on sleep she had been missing.

"Kagome!" A voice behind her called. Kagome turned to see who was still in the cave at this hour. Ginta was approaching her, Hakkaku was still in the back with wolf that seemed to be lying on its side.

"Good morning," Kagome said, offering what she hoped to be a cheerful smile and giving Hakkaku a small wave when he looked up at her.

"Kagome, you should come see this," Ginta said, taking Kagome's arm and leading her back to Hakkaku, who was gently petting the wolf laying in front of him.

"See wha-," Kagome started to ask, but immediately broke off and made an cooing sound. Nestled against the stomach of the wolf were five tiny and absolutely adorable pups. Three of them were a light shade of brown, one was a light gray, and one was a darker gray that might darken to black once it was older. Their fur looked so soft, Kagome was dying to pick one up and cuddle with it.

"They were born early this morning, just before dawn," Hakkaku said, rubbing the mother's head gently.

"They're so cute~," Kagome practically squealed, but she kept her voice down so she wouldn't disturb the six wolves. One of the brown-furred pups raised its head and started sniffing at the air, most likely curious at the new scent nearby. "Can I…hold one?" She asked hesitantly.

Hakkaku looked down at the mother questioningly. She looked back up at him for a moment, then let out something that kind of sounded like a 'wulf' and laid her head back down on the ground. Hakkaku looked up at Ginta and nodded. Ginta carefully picked up the brown pup with its head up and gently handed it to Kagome.

Kagome thought she was going to explode just from the small ball of fur in her arms. She crooned at it softly as it sniffed at her. She giggled when its warm tongue darted out to lick her cheek.

For just a moment, she could forget that Inuyasha was missing.

Kouga had already scouted out the pack's territory and was following through on his promise to Kagome. By now, he was a few miles or so beyond the edge of the canyon and heading in the direction of where Naraku's castle had been three nights ago. He paused to see what his nose could pick up from the wind. Although he tried to find the mutt's stench, he was mostly looking to find Naraku's scent.

So far, he hadn't found any trace of the hated smell. This didn't surprise him, he usually couldn't find the scent to begin with because of that damn barrier always up around the castle. The missing scent could also mean the castle had moved, just like it had the night Kagura had killed some of his pack and manipulated their bodies with that weird fan. Either way, the only explanation for the scent not to be there meant Naraku was still alive. If the mutt had succeeded in killing him, the stench of his death would be all over this area for days.

Inuyasha's scent was in the wind, but it was a stale scent that had most likely been from when he was on the way to the fight. The most logical explanation that Kouga could come up with for both scents being missing was that the mutt had died trying to kill Naraku and his body was behind the barrier. It was a reasonable explanation for the missing scents…but not one Kagome would want to hear.

Kouga put his head in his hand. What would he tell Kagome? Without proof that he was alive he had to tell her the truth: that he had seen no sign of that cursed mutt. Even so, Kouga couldn't bear the thought of upsetting her. She had actually smiled at him last night. Coming out here he had just hoped to see some sign of the mutt, like a piece of his clothing or even just a fresh scent. He couldn't see himself crushing Kagome's hopes of seeing that stupid half-demon again. She would probably be waiting for him when he got back, all smiles and eager to hear if he had found anything.

Kouga turned and started running towards the canyons at an easy pace, opting not to go at full speed because it would give him far more time to think. How was he going to break it to her? He could leave out his own observations and just say he hadn't seen anything. True it was sure to upset her, but if she took that at face value and chose to believe he was still alive… No doubt she would deny his death for another few days. Kouga decided to follow this plan. One step at a time, as the saying goes. It seemed a little cruel to her but this would also give him time to talk to her, make her more comfortable around him in the pack. Then, when she was finally ready to accept the mutt's death, he would be waiting to comfort her and finally make her his mate.

Kagome continued to cuddle with the pup into the early afternoon, under the watchful eye of the mother of course. It wasn't until she heard other pack members calling greetings that she realized how late in the day it was. She looked up towards the front of the cave expectantly.

Kouga responded to the greetings with small waves and short 'yo's as he approached the cave entrance. If what he had to say was going to hurt Kagome, he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Despite his resolve, he stopped and stared at the sight of Kagome cuddling a pup in her arms. It was a perfect picture in his mind, the woman he desired holding a young one. She had this almost motherly look about her as she turned to look towards him. His will faltered, how was he supposed to tell her now? He cleared his throat and asked, "How are the pups?," because he couldn't think of anything else to say right then.

"They're beautiful," Kagome offered before handing the one she had been holding back to Ginta.

"All of 'em are good and healthy," Ginta reported as he nestled the little one back in with its siblings.

"Good," Kouga nodded, "the pack could use some pups." Alright, maybe he was avoiding Kagome's expectant looks by talking about the new arrivals, but he was trying to get his thoughts together before she began questioning him.

"Kouga…?" Kagome asked. Why was he avoiding looking her in the eye? He hadn't forgotten about his promise to look for Inuyasha this morning, had he?

"Kagome, would you like to go for a walk?" Kouga offered, gesturing towards the cave entrance. He cursed silently, how should he tell her?

"Uhm..okay," Kagome agreed, standing and straightening out her skirt.

Kouga led her out of the cave and beyond the immediate encampment of his tribe, barely pausing to return greetings called to the two of them. Despite his best efforts to appear calm and unbothered, Kagome could tell something was weighing on his mind. This worried her, had he found something wrong when he had been out looking for Inuyasha?

She patiently waited for Kouga to say something as they continued the walk around the familiar area of the canyon. Finally, she couldn't contain her curiosity any longer, "Uhmm…Kouga?" His eyes slid towards her, letting her know she had his attention, "Did you… look for Inuyasha this morning?"

Kouga took a moment longer to think before answering, "Yeah, I wandered out towards where Naraku's castle was a couple days ago."

Kagome waited to see if Kouga was going to continue. "Did you find anything?" she prompted when it didn't seem like he was.

"Nah," Kouga said. Although he had tried to appear calm about the situation, when Kagoma stopped walking he quickly tried to amend his statement, "If the mutt crawled off somewhere he didn't leave anything for me to follow." He turned to Kagome and was startled to see tears were welling up in her eyes. Suddenly, any plans to let her draw her own conclusions immediately left Kouga. "H-Hey, just 'cause I didn't find anything doesn't mean the mutt's dead," he blurted out.

"But… that doesn't mean… he's alive," Kagome whispered, barely audible behind the hands that covered her mouth. If Kouga hadn't found anything with his enhanced demon senses, did she have any hope at all that Inuyasha might be alive? She was trying very hard not to cry in front of Kouga, but even so a tear still slid down her cheek.

"K-Kagome," Kouga almost looked like he was in shock, and he was silently cursing himself for opening his mouth again when he had already made her cry. "I-If the mutt is dead, it's his own fault for not falling back when he should have. It's not like there's anything you could've– "

"You don't know that!" Kagome burst out. She squeezed her eyes shut to try to stop the tears from flowing.

"But Kagome, if you had stayed…" Kouga tried to reason with her, he just wanted to make her feel better.

"If I had stayed things could be different!" Kagome's voice rose with every word even as another tear slid down her cheek. "I could've shot another arrow at Naraku… or maybe I could have tried to purify Kagura's attacks... or…"

"Or you could be dead!" Kouga instantly regretted his outburst when he saw Kagome flinch at his words.

"…I'm going to go look for Inuyasha myself," Kagome whispered, letting her bangs hang over eyes to hide any other tears that might fall.

"What?" Kouga asked, not sure if he had heard her correctly.

"I said I'm going to go look for him!" Kagome stated a little louder, turning on her heels and walking away.

"K-Kagome!" Kouga called after her, but she didn't even stop. Kouga sighed, she seemed too set on that wild goose chase. He was a little hesitant to let Kagome wander around on her own, but she was still in the pack's territory for now and she could use her arrows to attack any stray demons that had wandered too far this way by mistake.

Kouga decided to take a quick run to clear his head. Kagome confused him so much. Couldn't she just accept being his mate and forget about that damn mutt? What was so attractive about the half-breed anyway? What did he have that Kouga didn't?

The quick run became longer than he meant as he grew more frustrated with his thoughts and felt the need to burn off that frustration. It was some time before he returned to the main camp of his pack, looking to see if Kagome had come back. Seeing she wasn't, he called out to Ginta and Hakkaku that he was leaving again and started walking towards the edge of the camp.

On his way out, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and looked towards the rock that Kagome had stubbornly sat on all day the first day she had been here. Lying next to the rock was a simple red bow and brown quiver full of white-fletched arrows.

Shit… she's out there unarmed! Kouga jumped forward and grabbed Kagome's weapons before taking off running in the direction she had wandered in.

"Stupid Kouga…" Kagome thought aloud, kicking a rock in her path in frustration. "If he hadn't run off with me, I would know exactly where Inuyasha is right now. I could be treating any wounds he has! He might not even be wounded if I had been there with him!" Even now, she refused to admit that Inuyasha might be more than just wounded.

She had left the canyon area already, her determination driving her faster towards whatever destination she would find. The rocks that formed the canyon walls were already changing into the grass and trees of a forest.

Using one rock to steady herself, Kagome lowered herself onto a fallen log and from there jumped down to solid ground again. I'm going to tell Inuyasha a thing or two when I find him, making me worry and go through all this trouble just to find him…

Kagome stopped dead, sensing something with the aid of her miko powers. She glanced around, wondering what it was that had made her stop. A rustling in the grass to her right caused her to jerk her head around towards the source. She suddenly felt vulnerable, out here in the open.

Despite her unease, Kagome still strode forward. Whatever it was that she had sensed, it wasn't Inuyasha and she still needed to find him. She put the rustling sound out of her mind and focused on her goal. Still, it was hard to ignore a sound that just wouldn't go away.

When the rustling paused for a moment, Kagome stopped walking and looked towards where she had last heard it. She couldn't see anything among the grass, trees and bushes. She still felt like something was there… was something watching her? As she tried to puzzle out this weird sound something flew at her from behind. Kagome let out a small shriek as she barely managed to dodge whatever it was by falling to the ground.

"The Shikon Jewel…I smell it… you have it," An otherworldly voice came from above Kagome. She couldn't quite tell if the voice was male or female. Kagome instinctively put a hand to the small jar that held a few of the Shikon Jewel shards and looked up. Hovering in the air quite a way above her, she saw a giant worm-like demon with an eerily human-like face and a red mane trailing down its back. "I want it…I want it!" Kagome let out another small shriek as she tried to avoid the demon's dive.

Falling to get her on the dive, the demon wheeled around and headed straight back towards Kagome. She tried to scoot backwards, but the demon covered much more distance than she did. "Stay away!" Kagome yelled, holding up a hand defensively. When her hand drew even with the demon, a bright pink light burst out, striking the demon. The demon howled in pain and crumpled to the ground not far away from where Kagome sat.

Kagome looked down at her hand. It had been awhile since she had used her miko powers like this. She could count the number of times she had done so, like when she had first come to the feudal era and had that nasty run-in with that Centipede demon from the Bone-Eater Well. Usually the only way she could manipulate her powers was through her bow and – …..

"AH! I left my bow back at the wolf demon tribe!" Kagome exclaimed out loud, a look of pure shock crossing her face as she realized exactly how much trouble she was in. How could she defend herself without her usual weapon?

The body of the demon shuddered, then the head raised and looked at Kagome. "Pitiful mortal," that otherworldly voice sounded slightly pissed off. "I will make you pay for that. GIVE ME THE JEWEL!"

As the demon started to rise from the ground Kagome stumbled to her feet and started running. With no weapons her only choice was to try to make it back into the wolf demon territory and hope someone was nearby to help her. She didn't make it far before she felt her feet lose their ground, later she would realize that in her rush she must have stepped on or tripped over something and lost her balance.

Laughter made her look back at her pursuer. The demon was already so close to her and was moving quite fast. Kagome covered her head with her hands in a futile attempt to defend herself, squeezing her eyes shut as the demon rose up to make the final attack.

The next thing Kagome heard was the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath and then metal cutting through flesh. Kagome peeked out from under her arm to try to see what was going on. Through the space between her arms she could see bare feet and the bottom of a red hakama.

Hardly daring to breathe, Kagome moved her arms to try to view this new person better. Her eyes traveled up red garments and watched as the silver-haired and gold-eyed form push a large sword into a sheath that looked too small for it.

"Keh, what a weakling," the figure scoffed before turning around. "You alright, Kagome?"

"I-Inuyasha?" Kagome asked hesitantly as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. She felt her heart begin to race as she realized it really was him standing there in front of her.

"Of course! Who did you –" Inuyasha didn't finish, ears twitching and hand moving towards the hilt of his sword again.

"Kagome!" Kouga suddenly jumped into view, a bow in one hand and the strap of a quiver in another. As he jumped forward with the sole intention of getting to Kagome, Inuyasha neatly landed a punch on the back of his head.

"Stupid wolf!" Inuyasha growled, clearly pissed at the presence of Kouga. "I told you to watch out for Kagome! Why did I come back to find her being attacked?"

"Oye, mutt." Kouga rubbed the spot where he had been hit, glaring at the dog-demon. "Where the hell have you been? I should skewer you for making Kagome worry like you did. You're so inconsiderate!"

"You haven't answered my question yet, wolf. Why was she –,"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome launched herself at Inuyasha's back with the intention of hugging him. She had barely touched him when Inuyasha stiffened and started to fall. Kagome quickly released her hold as Inuyasha fell flat on his face as if she had used her subjugation command. "Oh, sorry sorry! Are you still hurt Inuyasha?" She asked, concern plain both in her voice and on her face as she knelt beside him.

"Fine," came the reply muffled by the earth.

"You're not fine," Kagome frowned. "How bad is the wound? Is it from Naraku? He didn't get any poison in it, did he?"

"Kagome, I'm fine." Inuyasha insisted despite the fact that he had made no attempts to move yet.

Kouga watched this small exchange and felt feelings of resentment and even a hint of jealousy well up within him. Seeing Kagome worry over him had just confirmed what he already knew but refused to admit: Inuyasha had a special spot in Kagome's heart, a spot he would never be able to fill. He still had no idea what she saw in the mutt, but if being with him made her happy…

Kouga shed the weapons he was holding, then took a step forward so he could kneel and have his face be so close to Kagome's. He took up her hands in both of his, "Kagome, I see you're worried about him, so I'll let you stay with him for now. But you can always come back here if you want, you'll always be welcome among the pack."

"That's nice, Kouga," Kagome said, feeling the slightest of blushes rise to her cheeks. "But could you get off Inuyasha? I think you're hurting him." It was true, that step forward to move him closer to Kagome had put Kouga's foot squarely between Inuyasha's shoulder blades.

"Only because you asked me too," Kouga said with a wink. Kouga removed the offending foot and straightened up.

"Damn wolf," Inuyasha muttered, raising his head. "I'll take you on right here, right now!"

"Well that'd be no fun," Kouga said with a shrug, his carefree attitude back. He turned to go. "Later, Kagome!" He raised a hand in farewell before taking off back the way he had come.

"Stupid wolf," Inuyasha muttered quietly, glaring at Kouga's back until it was out of sight and his hearing range. Kagome smiled and shook her head, just happy that Inuyasha was there to get angry at Kouga. Inuyasha quickly righted himself, now standing next her. "Let's go, Kagome." He offered her a hand to help her stand up.

Kagome looked up at him, then smiled and accepted the hand up. "Is everyone else okay, too?" She asked Inuyasha curiously as he pulled her up.

"Yeah, we all got out of there okay. Kaede's been helping us recover." Inuyasha replied, staring into the distance for a moment before turning his eyes back to Kagome. "That's why I didn't come for you right away, the old crow wouldn't let me stand on my own, not to mention leave her hut. I had to give her the slip just to get out here today." Another short pause, as if he was trying to actually get himself to admit to something. "And…I'm sorry…if I made you worry…"

"At least you're okay, that's what's important." Kagome said, leaning over to pick up her bow and quiver from where Kouga had discarded them. "Can we go back to everyone now?"

"Yeah, let's go." Inuyasha said. He walked forward, not running so Kagome could keep up with him easily. It occurred to Kagome that he would probably be carrying her if it wasn't for the wound on his back. Still, as Kagome followed Inuyasha through the woods she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she thought of reuniting with her friends. Even Inuyasha's protests of their slow movement couldn't dampen her spirits as they traveled along the road towards whatever adventures would come next.

~~End~~

A/N: What, you didn't seriously think I killed Inuyasha, did you? XD I hope you all enjoyed reading it!