The Castle of Edo
Chapter 11
Part Two…
The rain roared, a barrage of heavy drops continuously clobbering the rooftop above the top floor apartment. The sky was dark, cloaked by nighttime, dimmed by the furious storm obscuring any light emanating from street lights and homes and headlights. The apartment itself, everything but the light peeking under the closed bathroom door, left on just in case she needed to find it, was dark. Everything was obscured.
Several minutes passed before Kagome realized her eyes were open. She stared at the shadowy ceiling blindly, waiting until her eyes adjusted to the minimal light cast through the living area.
Kagome thrust her body upward to a half sitting position, supporting her weight upon her left arm, palm pressed against her resting place. She observed the dark outline of a living room couch. Was she still?...
'I'm still at Kouga's apartment,' Kagome realized. Her heartbeat quickened, butterflies consuming her stomach.
She felt something heavy and fuzzy covering her body. She looked down, stroking soft strands of a sandy colored fur pelt. 'Fur,' she smiled to herself. 'He would have fur blankets.'
Underneath the cover, Kagome's legs felt cold. She touched her body, her eyes widening as she felt the fabric of her clothing on her arms, stomach, legs. It had changed. She pulled the fur down to her waist, her mouth opening slightly with surprise upon seeing, not the clothing she arrived in, but a large charcoal shirt. A man's shirt. And nothing else, but her undergarments.
'He…he changed my clothes,' Kagome thought incredulously. Her face was on fire, her red cheeks the only color in the darkened room. 'He undressed me!'
Kagome placed her palm upon her heaving chest, covering her wildly beating heart. Given her clothes were soaked, seeping water into tiny puddles on his floor, she understood his reasoning for removing them. Not that understanding relieved her body's arousal.
She breathed deeply, relaxing, albeit momentarily, as she inhaled Kouga's woodsy, musky scent lingering on his shirt. She unconsciously pulled the garment to her nose, burying herself in his scent. She would never get enough of it.
She exhaled. His scent escaped. Her comfort was gone. Her thoughts darkened…
'What do I do?…'
Her eyes quivered, her mouth curving into a troubled frown. She felt…uncertain. Anxiety coursed through her body, sickening her, suffocating her. Her feelings for him were unshakable. But…was this too much too soon? Of course it was, for her. For him, it was too little, and too late.
'Am I being weak?...' she wondered, weariness weighing heavily in her heart.
She yawned. Fainting and freaking out fatigued her. She rested her head back upon the sofa's arm, wishing it were Kouga's, despite her conflicting feelings.
'Do I want this?...' she deliberated, drowsiness driving her body back into a fitful, restless sleep.
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Kouga sat on the edge of his bed. His skin was shiny with sweat, a loose pair of silver boxers the only clothing covering his overheated body. Sleep was impossible. He sat bent over, his formidable frame shaking with anxiety. His arms hung straight at his sides, rigid, hands pressed firmly against the mattress he sat upon to support his body. His mind tormented him with uncertainty. With memories…
A battle. Surroundings ablaze with electrifying light. His mate being torn from him, ripped right from his arms. Her eyes bulging with terror, calling for him, her voice silenced among the raging yowls and screams and yells in the battlefield. Her light, bursting from the darkness. Spiritual energy finding a way to save them all…
"What have I done?…" he whispered.
He ran his hands nervously through his sweat soaked ebony hair. His body trembled with fear. Despite the anguish he knew they would go through, despite the struggle, despite everything, he hadn't wanted to endanger the past by revealing Kagome's future, because he knew that past led him to her again.
"I was weak…" he spoke quietly to himself, squeezing his eyes shut tightly, shamefully, palming the sides of his head.
He had fought so hard to conceal her future, his past, so history would unfold as it should. His soul had shattered. He had broken his rules. His desire for her was too powerful. It overcame him, rendered him foolish. And now…
"Does she even want me?" he whispered, his stomach churning, his body boiling with emotions bubbling uncontrollably to the surface.
He stared into the darkness. His eyes grew distant, his mind travelling back to the first time, the second time, the third time he met her. Infatuation, then love, then devotion. He never dreamed he would meet someone like her, someone who would change his demonic heart so completely.
His mind recalled the first and second times her lost her, knowing this could be the third.
Losing her twice was unbearable. After bearing this burdensome grief for 500 years…
"I can't…" he choked. The strong, powerful, alpha male wolf demon shuddered, his black bangs falling over his eyes, shrouding anguished tears. "I can't lose her again…"
Kouga's face fell into his open palms, his arms bent, elbows resting upon his knees to support the heavy weight of his hanging head. What the hell had he done?
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In the other room, Kagome laid upon the brown leather living room sofa. She slept under the tawny fur pelt, anxiety exhausting her. Kagome tossed and turned, distressing dreams plaguing her in fitful slumber. She frowned in her sleep, her eyes squeezing shut almost painfully.
Her mind conjured an image that tormented her. The image of a silvery haired hanyou…
She saw him through her 15 year old eyes. She was trapped in vines beside a large tree. He stood there, his moonlight hair shining majestically in the streaming sun. She called to him. She smiled hopefully. It happened in slow motion. Her eyes widened, horrified. Her smile fell, her mouth agape with shock. She watched helplessly, as he could not see or hear her, her body invisible, her voice inaudible, as he entered the embrace of his first love. Kikyo. Kagome's heart shattered. She was in love with him, and he could not love her back…
The image changed, morphing from moonlit hair to midnight, eyes like the sun shifting to eyes like the bright blue sky. It wasn't Inuyasha anymore. It was Kouga.
She saw him through her 18 year old eyes. Her 15 year old self never noticed him. He had been invisible to her, his voice inaudible next to Inuyasha's. Yet here they were, reunited, as if it were fate. She noticed his handsomeness, his genuine affection, his dedication to her. He made her feel things she never imagined. His touch…she never dreamed a man's touch would render her so helpless. Then she learned that he had loved someone, a mate, and that wolf demons only had one love, their mate, for life. She was in love with him. And again, he could not love her back…or so she thought, before tonight.
Kagome saw his handsome face in her fitful dream. He smiled dashingly at her, cerulean eyes twinkling mischievously. He turned away, walking into the forest, vanishing into the darkness…
"Kouga…" Kagome whispered, tossing under her cover, knocking it half-way to floor.
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In the next room, Kouga jerked his head up. Did he hear?...
"Kagome?" he whispered. His brooding thoughts were forgotten. He jumped up from the bed, running from bedroom to her side.
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In Kagome's dreams, Kouga reappeared. There was a powerful, deadly burst of light. His handsome face was horrified as he screamed for her. A blast of light and he was gone from her sight…
"KOUGA!" Kagome screamed, sitting up violently from the sofa, her body drenched in sweat. The fur pelt fell to the floor.
"Kagome?" Kouga called worriedly, rushing down the short hallway and straight to her side.
Kagome heard footsteps coming from the hallway, growing closer. She heard a voice. She felt someone's presence beside her, the aura connecting comfortably with hers. "Kouga?" Kagome called uncertainly, barely able to see his form in the darkness.
"It's me," Kouga responded reassuringly. He kneeled by her place on the couch, touching her knee, letting her know he was with her.
"Kouga!" Kagome cried, flinging herself into his body. He instinctively opened his arms, catching her as she tumbled into his embrace, clutching her desperately against his body as she sobbed, shaking against him.
"Kagome," he comforted, burying his face into her thick, raven, wildflower hair.
Kagome pushed back from his embrace. He followed suit. He watched as she stared at him, her eyes radiating relief, then shifting to…mortification?
Kagome snatched the fur from the floor and covered her body instinctively. "Did you…change me?" she asked, jumbling her words as her heart beat wildly at the thought of him seeing her naked body…
"I kept you covered the best I could," replied Kouga, knowing what she had been thinking.
Kagome looked up, her first time fully fixated on Kouga's form after adjusting to the darkness. 'Wow…' she mused, heat flushing her cheeks. He stood before her, his muscular chest and defined abs fully exposed. And below, only clad in tight boxers that left little to imagine…
Kouga growled lowly, a part of him twitching scent spiked with arousal. He noticed her rapid breathing, her flushed face, her desire dancing in her shimmering eyes.
Kagome pushed the fur off her heated, wanting body. Subconsciously or not, she exposed her legs to Kouga, softly shimmering in the silver moonlight sneaking through the clouds as the rain dulled to soft shower. She noticed his boxers becoming tighter. She inhaled sharply.
Her scent intoxicated him. Her arousal was too much to bear. His wolf took over, overriding any sense of control he may have salvaged. He reached for her, pulling her flush against his body. Her quickened breath matched his, her breasts moving up and down with her chest, torturing him. He smelled her desire. She felt his on her stomach.
"Kagome," Kouga cooed, as he crushed her body to his, his clawed finger stroking her cheek tenderly. Her skin shivered with his touch.
"Kouga," Kagome breathed, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, fingers grasping his ebony hair, desperately attaching herself to his body.
He wasted no time. He pulled her body into his crushingly, his lips hungrily devouring hers over and over again, lifetimes without her fueling the flame.
Kagome pressed against him desperately. Oh, how she needed his touch. She felt his arms encircle her, his left hand frantically grasping the charcoal fabric covering her back while his right hand rushed to its second home behind her head, cradling her neck and grabbing a fistful of radiant raven hair.
His mouth dipped and so did his hand, falling from the nape of her neck to her upper back, clutching a fistful of her hair, holding back her stunning raven tresses to expose her porcelain neck to his view. His lips kissed their way to the base of her right ear, his tongue tasting her, tickling her, tracing her neck with tormenting touches…
"Kouga…" Kagome gasped against him, her hands falling to his muscular shoulders and clutching them, pushing her concealed breasts into his chest.
Kouga growled, his lips passionately reuniting with Kagome's. Their lips met hungrily, their tongues reuniting and dancing a fiery tango. Kouga released Kagome's hair and smoothed downward, tracing her covered frame with his clawed finger tenderly, seductively, until he made his way to Kagome's left hip. She shuddered under his touch.
Her scent spiked again. She wanted him. Wanted him badly. And oh, how he wanted her…
"Kagome," Kouga whispered huskily, gripping her left outer thigh desirously.
Kagome's body grew wings. She abandoned her inhibitions, disposing them along with her distressing dreams. She freed her body to move freely with his. She thrust herself against Kouga, wrapping her legs around his midsection, straddling him. He pushed against her, hastily pulling her shirt over her head as her arms raised to assist him, discarding it in a depressing gray heap on the carpet. With one quick slash, he cut her bra and flung the ill-fated fabric to the floor. He picked her up from the sofa, her legs still encircling his hips. His tanned, muscular arms clutched her body to his, kissing her lips insatiably, his lips and her lips connecting feverishly over and over as he pushed objects out of the way and she wrapped her arms around his neck, tangling her hands into his midnight hair.
Kouga guided them roughly down the hallway with unbridled passion. He pushed Kagome's body against the wall, thrusting against her while his tongue penetrated her lips. She moaned, her desire igniting, her head tilting back into the wall unconsciously, craving Kouga's kisses, his touches, his body, his everything.
Kagome gripped Kouga's shoulders, her body instinctively thrusting into him. He growled. His craving for her multiplied with every movement of her body, her hips, every moan escaping her lips. He had to have her. Now.
He tore her away from the wall, her pelvis pressed passionately into his, her legs locked around his hips. He carried her into his bedroom decisively, his wolf leading his submitting mate to the privacy of their cave. He laid her gently upon her back above the soft fur pelts covering the end of his bed, his body pressed against hers. He forced the wolf into hiding, controlling its need for immediate fulfillment. His elbows braced his body so he hovered above her, so as not to suffocate her with the full pressure of his weight, the full weight of his length pressed heatedly against her the only exception.
Kagome drew back from Kouga's embrace to see his handsome face and his soulful sapphire eyes. The soft moonlight penetrating the bedroom window illuminated Kouga's sculpted body in an ethereal glow, his blue eyes shimmering like two crystal orbs. His powerful demonic presence was enticing. She longed for more of him. Her arousal amplified.
Kouga stared at Kagome with a deep, gnawing hunger, unfulfilled for centuries. His eyes darkened from aqua to indigo, her arousal signaling his wolf to take over. He could not contain the demon spirit any longer. He studied her face, the moonlight reflecting in her beautiful chestnut eyes, highlighting her perfect porcelain skin, outlining her feminine curves.
Kouga growled greedily. Kagome stared into his aqua eyes, their souls instantly connecting.
"Kouga.." Kagome begged.
"Yes, Kagome?" Kouga whispered huskily, his eyes clouded with want. He swept the back of his hand lovingly from above her ear across her glowing midnight hair splayed across the bed like a shining silk.
"Please," she begged.
He was struggling. He forced a final coherent sentence before the wolf would possess him.
"Are you…sure?"
Kagome smiled seductively. "Yes," she said softly. There was no hesitation. "Please, Kouga."
The wolf needed no other commands. Its mate had spoken.
Their lips crashed against one another's like turbulent waves colliding in the ocean, their passion surging as their tongues and bodies, arms and legs, fingers and hands intertwined. Kagome moaned mournfully when Kouga's lips left hers, but shivered and sighed impassionedly when those lips discovered her neck, traveling downward with teasing kisses to her shoulder blade, sliding still to her chest, tasting her breasts. Her body burned with burgeoning need as his lips lowered, licking an invisible linear line to her bellybutton, lapping below and falling further. He slashed her panties with one swift swipe of his claw. Then his tongue found its way to the center of her blossoming hunger.
"Aah!" Kagome cried. She dug her nails into Kouga's shoulders, leaving little indentations marking her pleasure.
"Kagome," Kouga hissed. Kami, she had no idea what she was doing to him. Her uninhibited passion, her liberated body, her spiking scent…he was about to be undone.
Her soul soared when he called her name. His voice overflowed with longing, loyalty, love…all for her. Their soul connection fueled her body's scorching response to Kouga's sensual ministrations. Fluid heat escaped her.
Kouga growled upon feeling her response to him, his tongue never stopping, tasting her as he poured his energy and passion into her pleasure. He would see her satisfied first, even if it drove him mad.
"Kouga," Kagome called, grabbing fistfuls of his ebony hair as the pressure became too much, too intense, like a damn refusing to break despite the water behind pushing and pushing, burning to escape.
Kouga gripped Kagome's inner thigh, tracing his claw up tantalizingly toward the core of her torment. Kagome felt what she couldn't see. He used his clawed finger as a tool to break the dam.
"KOUGA!"
The damn burst, Kagome's release rushing out like water freed from its confinement.
Kouga tasted her before hastily rising to ravish her lips, his long unmet need for her consuming him. He jerked her to a sitting position.
"Kagome," Kouga called huskily.
Kagome shivered. His voice held an animalistic tone she had never heard before.
"Kouga?" she questioned, lust lacing her words.
Kagome "eeped!" as he flipped her roughly onto her stomach. Her eyes widened when she felt him clutch her hips and raise her rear into the air. She adjusted her knees to support her in the bending position while feeling his body mirror hers, attaching himself to her from above, his arm wrapping around her stomach and pulling her into his body possessively.
He was a wolf, ready to mate with his woman.
"Kouga," Kagome managed to say, "Kouga, please take it easy."
"I'll control it the best I can, Kagome," he responded dismissively, his hand folding her luscious hair to the other side of her body so his lips could conquer the delicate flesh of her back.
"Kouga," she struggled, gasping as his lips trailed teasing kisses across her flesh, traveling torturously down her back. "You…you don't…understand."
"Hmm," he responded, dazed and drunk from her body.
"Kouga, I'm…I'm…I've never done this before. Remember?" she forced out.
Kouga stopped his caresses, his body still passionately pressed to hers. 'Kami, that's right! She's a virgin! I wasn't thinking…that damn inner wolf…'
"Kagome," he forced, clenching his teeth in insufferable misery, fighting with every ounce of strength to stifle the wolf struggling to be free to mate with its mate. "I don't think we…"
"Kouga…"
"We can't." he seethed through gritted teeth. This, this stroke of fate, finding her, his mate, when she had not yet known him as her mate….Kouga forcefully hurled his sweat soaked body off Kagome's, standing abruptly, shakily pulling his boxers over his exposed flesh.
"Kouga…" Kagome called softly, quietly begging for him to turn to her while she grasped the nearest blanket she could find in the darkness and pulled it over her naked frame.
Kouga turned his head to the side, his eyes and speech swelling with sorrow.
"We can't."
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"We can't!"
"You two will have to until I get back!"
"You were just gone for two and a half months! The pack might become too restless with you gone another infinite amount of time."
Five hundred years in the past, Kouga stood in a small, private cave in the eastern wolf tribe territory, arguing with his two betas regarding his current orders. He clenched his hands into fists at his sides, clenching his eyes shut, clenching his teeth.
"Kouga," warned a stern, graying male wolf demon, one of the elders and rulers of Kouga's universe.
"Yes, Ritszu," Kouga replied respectfully, his tone teeming with unrestrainable frustration.
Ritszu narrowed his eyes at Kouga. "Do not forget what you have been promised to do. Your mating ceremony…"
"Is NOT going to happen," Kouga retaliated, determination blazing in his fiery ocean eyes.
"You must take a mate…"
"I have a mate! I need to go to her and protect her from this demonic force growing around us!"
"You…" the tribe elder stared speechlessly, searching for a comprehensible response while his old yellowing eyes glimmered with disbelief. "You…have an intended?"
"Yes!" Kouga affirmed, placing his palms confidently on his hips, his head held high.
"He's taking Kagome as his mate," Hakakku chimed in.
"The miko?" Ritszu sputtered.
"What is this about a miko?" inquired a deep, male voice, toned with intimidation.
Kouga sighed, palming his forehead in irritation. "It's nothing, Father. I was just explaining that…"
"He is going to retrieve his mate," finished Ritszu.
Kouga spun on his heels, eyeing the elder wolf warningly.
"What do you mean, his 'mate'?" Kouga's father asked heatedly.
Kouga glared at the elder wolf, silently ordering him to remain quiet.
The elder wolf didn't get the message.
"He said he has an intended. The miko, Lady Kagome." Ritszu responded matter-of-factly.
Kouga's father swirled his head toward Kouga in slow motion, heated hazel meeting blazing blue.
"Kouga! What are you thinking?! A miko?!"
"I love her," Kouga seethed through bared teeth, squeezing his clenched fists at his sides. His tanned hands were turning white from the pressure he produced.
"Spiritual humans KILL demons, Kouga!"
"I would die without her, Father!"
"Kouga, you're being foolish, just like…"
"Suki was confused. My wolf knows its mate, Father," Kouga replied, his voice confident, steady, his fists shaking at his sides. "My wolf recognized her before I did. Kagome," he continued, a bit softer when thinking about his precious woman, "is my mate."
"She saved us from the Birds of Paradise. The tribe loves her," Ginta interjected, stepping to Kouga's left side supportively.
"She is welcome here. She is part of the pack. She is our sister," Hakakku added, stepping to Kouga's right.
Kouga glanced at his comrades as they moved beside him. He glared at his father, encouraged by his betas' support.
"Enough of this!" shouted Kouga's father. He turned from them, exiting the chamber.
Kouga gritted his teeth, watching his father thunder out the doorway. He turned quickly to the tribe elder. "Ritszu, please leave me and my betas to discuss some tribe issues, privately. Thank you for your time."
Ritzu bowed respectfully. "As you wish, Kouga."
Kouga bowed in return and watched as Ritszu slowly left the chamber and returned to the pack. He turned hastily toward his two right hand men.
"I'm sorry, Kouga."
"Maybe he'll come around…"
"No," Kouga replied quickly, cutting off the encouragement his betas were offering him. "No, he won't…" 'Not after Suki…'
"Can you tell us any more about this demon you're going after?" Ginta asked.
"In case anyone in the tribe asks, we can tell them something. You know, so they won't overthrow us," Hakakku added.
A pebble fell near the chamber doorway. Kouga looked toward the entrance, studying sound, smell, sight. Was anyone there?
No, he determined. All he could detect was his father's residual scent.
"All we know," Kouga spoke in a hushed tone, "is that this…thing, has a spiritual and demonic presence. It's an apparition, but the last time we battled, it seemed to be forming a solid body. We know its name is Dokan Sukenaga Ota and that he died over 25 years ago, when he was about 54."
Kouga stopped and looked toward the doorway again. Did he hear someone gasp?
"And you're sure you have to be the one to stop him?" Ginta inquired.
"Yes," Kouga said firmly. "This Dokan, Sukenaga, spirit man keeps kidnapping Kagome. It has some fascination with her. I have to protect her and we have to stop this force before it expands to the tribe."
"Okay, Kouga. We'll lead the tribe until you come back."
Kouga shook his head approvingly toward his betas. Ginta and Hakakku shook their head in return. When Kouga looked away, the two betas shared a wary glance. They would lead as long as they were allowed…
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She listened quietly as Kouga and his comrades spoke, her scent cloaked by her mate's furs wrapped tightly around her body and draped over her hair. Her own mate did not detect her when he stormed from the chamber, enraged by Kouga's declaration of devotion to the human priestess.
She listened as Kouga's betas supported him, as they asked him about this new demonic presence, as he gave them the minimal information he knew.
"Dokan Sukenaga Ota…25 years…54…"
'Could it…be?' she thought, trembling from the impossible possibility.
"I've got to tell him before he leaves," she spoke softly to herself. "As his mother, he deserves to hear the truth from me."