*pops up out of nowhere* Uhm..yeah so… *feels angry youki radiating off of everyone* Err…? *offers up new chapter as a peace offering while smiling innocently*

This chapter is dedicated to all my continued followers and new followers of this fiction that have appeared in my absence. You guys are amazing. Here's to you.

Oh yeah, it says my fanfic is in a community? The hell does that mean O.o?: A Bunch of Awesome FanFics is the name of the community...go me?

Also, if any of you would like to offer up names for characters, mostly ookami youkai, in the story please feel free to do so. Kouga has a huge tribe….I need names.

Also, it seems I am having trouble with filler chapters… which is why it has taken me so long to churn this one out; I know it is short but I am just getting back into writing and thought I'd take it slow. It was originally supposed to be the chapter where a major plot point happened. However, with the action-filled last chapter, I wanted to slow it down a bit in order to not overload the timing as it were. However, it seems to have created a conundrum for me. Thus, if you think there are things you'd like to see happen in the, for future filler chapters, please do leave suggestions in the review for me.

Thanks so much~

Disclaimer: All original characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. Any events taking place are of my own imagination. Any similarities to actual people or events are strictly coincidental.

Chapter Seven: Unexpected Advice

The following day found Kagome sitting at the edge of the den, peering into the snow-covered landscape, with her two silent guardians at her side leaning against her to provide warmth. It was where she had stayed even when offered food and a place by the fire by other pack members. This troubled Kouga.

The ookami prince had been tied up with alpha duties all day, but whenever possible he'd steal a glance in her direction and inhale her scent that always held the smoky tint of unhappiness and confusion. He'd underestimated the severity of the effect that worthless cur's words would have on her.

Glancing at her, out of the corner of his eye, for the upunteenth time that day, Kouga couldn't help but sigh as he leaned back against the cave wall, arms crossed, listening to the ookami youkai that was, once again, reciting the triple-checked food stores they had built up. He was nowhere near done with providing for the pack against the oncoming storm. It would be several more hours before he could go check on her, and this only proved to lessen his already minute amount of patience for the day.

He was, however, pleased that the pack had accepted her so readily after yesterday's display. He couldn't help the smirk that ghosted over his features. She was now a part of his tribe, his pack, and he'd finally gotten to give Inuyasha the thrashing he deserved. It had felt better than he'd ever imagined it could, and secretly he wished for the dog to show his face again. All the pain he'd received wasn't nearly recompense for his transgressions. All Kouga would need was one reason: showing his mangy face would be enough.

His eyes scanned the cave taking in the sight of his pack. Most of them were lounging around, but his sky-blue eyes searched for a predetermined target. Seconds later sky blue met amber: Izuma.

After yesterday, the auburn-haired male had wisely kept his distance from Kagome. However, Kouga had noticed that he had taken to watching her any chance she was within sight. Kouga's upper lip twitched at the thought.

He wasn't sure what Izuma's intentions were and that was what unsettled him most.

Even though he'd disciplined and openly admitted his affection for Kagome to Izuma, that was no guarantee his warning would go heeded. Grief did strange things to youkai, and Izuma, it seemed, was no exception. He'd have to watch him carefully from now on. In any case, there would be no chance for his actions, toward Kagome, to be repeated. He'd make sure of that.

"Uh, Kouga?" Ginta questioned his blue orbs studying his alpha's features intently.

Even to the most trained eye, Kouga's stress was barely visible, but the fact that it was seen at all spoke volumes. He was beginning to feel the pressure.

"Hm," Kouga replied, redirecting his attention to the four ookami youkai, two of which were Hakkaku and Ginta, that stood before him. He'd completely zoned, everything said, out and had been caught doing it.

The bridge of his nose pulled up in a slight snarl as he brought two fingers up pinching it in mild aggravation and stress.

"Just tell me," he said irritatedly in his smooth tenor, "do we have enough?"

"Well," the ookami reciting the report, Rai, started, "We did up until two nights ago. Our calculated additions would have normally covered the now existing cubs, however, we were not taking into account the addition of the miko-"

"Who has eaten very little since she came," Kouga nearly growled out as he glanced back at the miko openly.

That was another thing that bothered him. She wasn't eating. She hadn't eaten all day. What was wrong with her? Was she sick? What did you give a sick human?

He could feel the stress mounting as the muscles in his shoulders and back tightened significantly.

"Kouga," Ginta said again garnering his alpha's attention, "go. I'll handle this."

Kouga raised an eyebrow, unconvinced, as he peered at his beta with stern, disbelieving eyes.

Ginta fixed his own blue hues into Kouga's, standing his ground. It was a very risky move. Kouga could take it as Ginta challenging him as alpha, which would end in one of their deaths: his own he knew.

However, as beta he did have a responsibility, especially since Kouga was still unmated, to ensure the well-being of the alpha. To take the burden of the pack upon his own shoulders in times when the alpha was particularly overwhelmed. They, in essence, ruled the pack together.

Ginta knew Kouga wasn't to the point yet, but he wouldn't allow him to go any farther toward it if it could be helped. Kouga may take care of the pack, but with no alpha, there is no pack.

Kouga was torn between duty and desire. It seemed to be the common theme in his life recently, as he stole a glance toward his favored ningen. Her aura emanated sorrow and insecurity. It called to his beast like a moth to the flame, demanding to be comforted, but, for now, he refrained. His honor and status demanded his pack duties be attended to first and foremost before his own personal agenda be allowed such privileges. Even if his beast believed doing so was also a pack duty, considering she has claimed to be as such yesterday. Which was something else he had to think about.

His sky blues regarded Ginta for a moment, searching for a sign of weakness or hesitancy, before sighed, closing his eyes as he finally refused the offer he wanted to take, "It can wait." He responded in resignation to the unspoken conversation they had shared, turning back to his packmates before him, blue hues hardening in determination. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could take care of the nagging sensation his beast plagued him with. Closing his eyes as he centerd himself, he submitted to the fact that he would just have to trust in his pack to take care of her until he could.

Kagome's eyes scanned the winterscape before her, the mouth of the cave only a couple hundred feet from where the altercation between her and Inuyasha, and as a result Kouga, took place yesterday. The disturbed earth from the adamant barrage still quite visible as it had reshaped the entire area. However, a new layer of snow had covered the new additions like scar tissue, dulling the glaringly obviousness of the blemishes on once pristine landscape. Something much like her own wounds had done overnight.

Honestly, it shouldn't bother her this much. Inuyasha always had a knack for hitting her right where it hurt, his words never failing to hold a scathing, breath stealing quality to them for her, but this time something was different. This time he hadn't held back in telling her exactly how he had felt about her and her help for all those years, and, while liberating to a degree, it was still a kick to the gut of just how low he had thought of her while she had given him literally everything. The very best of what she had to offer, and, at the end of the day, it had still not been enough.

Somber dark blue hues blinked, clearing the haze of her thoughts as she felt a disturbance to her right in the form of a dark brown haired, green eyed wolf cub that had, despite how closely he was being watched by the den mothers, managed to sneak away from the other cubs to seek her out.

A small smile pulled at the edge of her lips as she removed his little claws from her kisodo in favor of cradling him in her arms, holding him tightly to her chest. It softened her sharply morose aura into that of a mild happiness, her scent less smoky and clouded as the cub burrowed into her chest, relishing her comfort and her warmth.

On some level, Kagome knew she was spoiling the cub by cuddling him so much and allowing him to seek out comfort in her so often like she did, but she couldn't find it in herself to care much at the moment. Not when she was a torrential mess of emotions herself. So, for now, she would continue to spoil him for a bit longer.

Having noticed an intruder upon their little reprieve at the mouth of the den, Hikari and Youru lifted their heads slightly before settling back down on either side of her. Youru wagging his tail as he snuffled the tail of the cub while Hikari merely huffed and laid his head back down, unbothered and seemingly aloof to the newcomer's presence. However, amber hues did watch Kagome and the cub interact with a seemingly studious gaze, and when he determined neither a threat to the other, he laid his head back down to nap a while longer.

It was a few minutes after before Hakkaku sauntered toward her bearing food, calling out to her as he approached, "Hey, Sister," he tried easily, long legs folding beneath him as he sat as close as Youru's large form would allow while holding a slate of rice and meat on his lap. His own light blue hues studied Kagome's posture as his nose deciphered her scent. Kouga's chosen or not, Hakkaku was hardly one to allow any of his packmates to remain depressed for so long, at least if he could help it. It wasn't good for her, but, undoubtedly, it was just as distracting and distressing for Kouga to see her this way. As he was currently unable to do anything about it due to his responsibilities.

The pack, along with himself, had felt the slight edge to Kouga's aura all morning, especially when he would glance toward her and see no change. So, if cheering her up could soothe his alpha's unease and also bring a smile to her face, then who was really losing at the end of it all. It was the least he could do.

"Hey Hakkaku," Kagome started with a weak smile, her stomach feeling no more hungry at the sight of the food despite not having eaten at all today thus far. She was sure it was unusual to the wolves that she shared the den with currently for one of their own to not eat, and somewhere she knew she should be eating regularly during the winter months in order to keep her strength up. However, she just couldn't find it in her after last night.

She allowed her arms to loosen around the now snoozing cub in her arms as her eyes ghosted over the food again, sighing softly, "I'm just really not hungry right now," she said as she met the youkai's eyes, somewhere asking him to understand that she wasn't ungrateful for the offered food.

"I know," Hakkaku intoned quietly as his eyes left hers and peered out into the winter wonderland before them, leaning back on both of his arms as an amiable silence passed between them. "You know Sister," he started as his light blue eyes scanned the surrounding area, mostly out of habit, before returning to hers, "nothing he said yesterday was true, right?"

Kagome froze, her eyes flashing back to Hakkaku's quickly as she felt her face heat up, just now understanding how much of the conversation the den was able to hear from that far away. It made her inwardly groan, but the male before her continued, "When I was a cub," he started scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, obviously not use to talking about himself very often, "I wasn't the strongest. I was mediocre at best when it came to the fighting games we would play, and I've never been very smart. That's always been Ginta's strength," he said chuckling a little, "And I was smaller than the other cubs my age. They'd push me around. Pick on me because they knew I couldn't do anything about it. Shoved me around. Generally bullied me and started calling me weak and saying other things about me that weren't really true. But, after awhile, I believed them. Didn't think I was ever going to be a good hunter, a good fighter, all around a worthless wolf demon," he said laughing a little more having already broken eye contact with a horrified Kagome as he glanced toward the snowy landscape once more. "It went on for about a hundred years or so until I left that pack and met Kouga and Ginta," he said as his eyes drifted back to Kagome's. "They took me in. Taught me how to fight. How to stand up for myself, and turns out I'm a fairly decent fighter," he said as a wayward breeze met the cave entrance, ruffling his white mohawk in its updrafts. "The point is," he said struggling to find the right words as he rubbed the back of his neck again sheepishly, "maybe you weren't all those things that he said at all. Maybe you just need to be somewhere else to see that though? To see that, he couldn't really see you at all to begin with, and maybe you can become something better without him breathing down your neck."

Kagome's raven tresses whipped up around her with the invasive wind coming off of the valley, but her dark blue hues were riveted upon Hakkaku in that moment. Despite the stumbling delivery of his words, the message behind them was clear. That maybe she would do better without the kind of hostile environment she had been living in for the past several years. With that kind of freedom, perhaps she could become more than even she realized that she could. It was profound really, but her lengthened silence only served to make the other male nervous.

"Ginta was always better with his words too," Hakkaku grumbled slightly as he looked away with a slight pink tint to his cheeks, and the grumbly behavior only made Kagome laugh.

"No, no, thank you Hakkaku," she said as she calmed herself enough to look genuinely grateful for the words he had spoken to her. A piece of her that had been wrought with stress finally soothing itself at the comprehension of his words.

The bells of laughter resounding through the cave served to turn several heads her way, one of which was Kouga whose posture seemed to relax a bit at the sound and sight of Hakkaku stirring up her mirth as the dismal cloud of sadness of her aura seemed to dissipate some. The alpha made a note to thank him later for taking care of her.