LXXXIII

Clausum Fregit

The Wolves are young, none of them yet at their hundredth year, but they're not so young that they're stupid. To be sent on patrol means that they are almost adults. That they're old enough to see the world as it is, and do their best for the pack despite that.

So they are young, but death and the smell of death are no stranger to them. Death is hunting, the red blood, the white bones: to eat, which is to live and stay alive. Death is the hand that squeezes the weak in battle. Death is not to be feared, and not to be run from, but to be accepted as just another part of what it means to be alive. Only defying death is in the hands of the Alpha alone.

This morning, following that known presence, they have found an unknown. A woman? A woman. She isn't dead herself, but the presence is with her. She moves, breathes, has blood that pumps in her veins. Her eyes are bright and clear when she startles awake to see them panting in front of her.

However.

Something is wrong, or at least not right. Some undefinable thing that can't be pointed to, something which couldn't be put into words even if these wolves had tongues that could shape them. Yet she is a living, breathing human woman.

If that was all they knew of the matter, they would perhaps ignore the wrongness. But these wolves are Kouga's wolves, and they know Kagome.

Looking at this woman, tasting her air, comparing her to their Alpha's woman, they know she is death, or she brings death, or she is haunted by death. None of these things are good, and none of these things belong here, near the den they are meant to protect. But she is awake, and watching them. She does not seem to fear them. Her hands are steady as they go in and out of her pack.

They are watching for steel, a half dozen pair of nearly identical eyes focused intensely on her fingers, but what she brings forth is a white, smooth roll. Paper? They know what it is, but the seal on it has no meaning. The words would have even less. Her words, though –

"I am Sango of the Taijiya clan. I have been sent with a message for Kouga, the Wolf Alpha, and the miko who… accompanies him. From the daimyo that borders the north of your land. You are wolves, and yōkai; do you know of Kouga, or where to find him? Have you heard his name?"

The Wolves have a conversation of huffs and growls and whines.

A dangerous human.

In other times, wouldn't we just have killed her?

A dangerous human! Wait, and see what Kouga says.

Not dangerous to us-

Yes, call for Kouga.

Since she knows him? Knows his name, knows him-

Knows Kagome.

What does she know, what?

Kouga will know. So, let her ask him.

Ask him. Ask him!

Ask him, ask him.

And until then…

Yes.

They come to the same conclusion, and act together with the same mistrust. One at a time they move into a semicircle, enclosing the woman in her cave, a scratched out hollow that's barely more than a hole in the hillside. One at a time they open their mouths and howl, summoning their Alpha, because they cannot leave and leave her here unattended, and they do not know her strength well enough to abandon each other in her presence. They could send a few, but who knows if those who go might not end up leading her where she cannot be led?

So they howl, and then they are silent, and stare at her, and wait.

Several minutes pass, and finally she shakes her head, looking back and forth between them. "Is that meant to be your answer? But I don't understand you, wolves." Then there is an answering howl, deeper and wilder, echoing from the distance. Finally, she seems to understand. "You called him here? Then I will wait."

The Wolves laugh amongst themselves, tasting her fear, and creep closer, inspired by it.

The sound of a half dozen howls unified into one, summoning sound stabs into Kouga's room in the den. Neither the sound nor the light of dawn are welcome, but he can't deny them, unwilling as he is to trade the warm, naked woman in his furs for the early morning chill.

The howls' echo fades quickly, and he slips out of the furs and past Kagome, pausing to touch her hair, her lips, as he grabs up his clothes and gets dressed. That sound means a trespasser, and lately he's had more than enough of those. Harpies. The monk. And that wind witch, who died yet wouldn't die.

Kouga is still waiting for something to come of that. As the snow has begun to melt in the southern parts of their territory, he has insisted on expanding the pack's patrols south and east. When summer comes, he intends to expand their range equally far to the north. Just in case – and isn't this morning's interruption proof of the necessity?

The den is quiet around him as he makes his way past sleeping pups and their parents, some with one eye open, others with only their ears twitching in his direction. They have all heard, but as yet there's no reason for them to be stirring. Kouga ignores them all, but especially the monk, who is seated at the den's entrance, watching the sky and looking far too wakeful for this time of day.

"Someone is coming, Kouga-sama? Do we know them?"

Kouga frowns. Had Miroku understood the summons of those on patrol? How? Saya, probably. She needs a talking to. How does she not know better? "You were to stay with us through the winter, at Kagome's request. Winter is almost over, but you're learning too many secrets, monk. You should think about how many of those secrets I'll let you have, while still allowing you to leave here in one piece."

Living with Kagome has given Kouga unrealistic expectations of other humans. He almost expects the man to say something about Saya, or maybe even a hint about how he doesn't want to leave.

Instead, Miroku says, "Kagome-sama makes your threats much less impressive, Kouga-sama."

Kouga wastes a full thirty seconds trying to suppress his reflexive rage, then gives up and gives in to it. "If you think that, you're going to come to a nasty end very quickly." He meets Miroku's eyes, and despises all the foolish things he sees there, and the serious ones even more so. "Let us be clear, monk. I do not like you. Not the way you have wormed your way into my den, not the way you look at my woman –

"Even if she were not my woman, even if she belonged only to herself, she would never look twice at you, except to make sure she was walking away. I don't like the way you make jokes, or the curse you carry, or the way Saya seems to care whether you live or die. She deserves better than you. So don't try your stupid games with me. Don't test me. You won't live to regret it."

He doesn't pause before he turns away, and opens his mouth for a howl that will warn the patrol he's on his way. Then he's gone, leaving the monk to blink through his words on his own time… but he still isn't fast enough to escape Miroku's parting comment.

"Still could have gone worse."

The words circle in Kouga's brain, irritating him further as he runs. Could have gone worse? Yes. Before Kagome, and you know it! And knowing it is fine, but saying it! Just because now I will not risk – But a grim sort of smile thins his lips, and he growls under his breath as he runs a little faster. Is it really still a risk? I saw on her face when she stood against Hiten that now she understands why it's fight or die. So maybe if I kill you it will have to be for her reasons, monk, but she has them. She understands. Even for her, I don't have to accept you forever.

His thoughts run on as he runs on. There was no real emergency in the howl that called him out, just a request for his presence, but he catches himself on the edge of ripping up half the forest, so fast is he running, so intense is the wind he's called up around himself. What is it about that man that riles him up so easily? He hadn't even said that much -

Abruptly, Kouga arrests his motion and waits for the dust to settle, for himself to settle. Then he sniffs delicately, locates exactly where the patrol is waiting, and adjusts his direction to approach the group from downwind at a much more leisurely pace.

Is it more humans? No, just one. A woman. Smells off, though. Has she been rolling in corpses? He darts the back of his hand across his nose as he gets closer, and stops, wary, remembering the unwoman and her hanyō mutt and praying to gods he does not believe in that she is not the one who has come visiting.

The closer he gets, the more he wrinkles his nose. Shikon no tama for sure. But what else? Death, and old blood, and anger. Is it the unwoman? What was her name? Kagome will be annoyed if I forget it. Kikyou? Yes, that was it. Kikyou. It smells so much like her, but also… not. Death, and shikon no tama, yes, but also… something else. Someone else. As if these other flavors are foreign to this visitor, who brings them with her despite that.

Then he is close enough to see her, to feel the vibrations of her heartbeat pounding at the pace of fear, and he knows for sure that this is not Kikyou. She has no heartbeat, and the trespasser looks nothing like Kagome. She looks like any village woman he's ever seen, black-haired and brown-eyed and dirty, dressed in a fading yukata with too little fabric to fill out the sleeves. But there is no denying that she reeks of death and the sacred jewel.

His Wolves have her surrounded, but she sits quietly enough, waiting, her eyes moving now and then to scan the little piece of horizon that's visible over furred shoulders. She is too calm for his liking, too calm for any human in such a situation, but though the minutes slip past, and he waits, watches, listens, breathes her scent and dissects it for truths, finally he has to admit there is nothing else to be learned except by asking her.

To make a point, he darts across the last of the distance between them at his top speed, only stopping far enough away to keep the whirlwind he's whipped up away from his Wolves. The woman's eyes widen in obvious surprise, seeing him appear out of nowhere, but very quickly they narrow again in appraisal.

Kouga wonders what she's looking for; it certainly isn't a look like the ones he's gotten used to from Kagome. It's as if the stranger is trying to estimate his strength with her glance, but he almost laughs out loud as the thought occurs. As if one woman, who isn't even a miko, could be a threat to him!

Tongues lolling, panting, pleased with themselves, the patrol come up around him and push their heads against his hands. Kouga smirks down at them, then shoves them back, and strides over to look down at the woman, who hasn't moved. Good. "So? Who are you? What do you want? Speak fast, or I'll let them kill you and go about my day."

"I am Sango, of the Taijiya clan. You could kill me, maybe, but it would be harder than you think. And would your miko be happy to-"

He moves without thinking, snatches her up off the ground by the neck and shakes her like a ragdoll. "You know about her, so you think you can threaten me with her? You call yourself Taijiya, so you think you can fight me? With what weapon do you think you could injure me?"

He squeezes her neck a little tighter, enough to make it clear that he could snap it like a twig. "Taijiya. You say it like I should be as proud of it as you are. Or maybe you think I should be afraid?"

He snorts, and her eyes glitter with some feeling or other, but Kouga doesn't care to probe and find out what it is. "Do you think we get no news here in the mountains? If you're truly a yōkai hunter, you're the last of a dead clan – and even before that, you and your kin were no threat to me. Did you really stake your safety on your skills, or was it wishful thinking about my woman? About how she would protect you?"

He waits just long enough for her to open her mouth again, then leans dangerously closer, breathing the hot stink of her exhaled air. "Do you see a miko here, Taijiya?"

She goes very still, so much so that she hangs limp from his hold on her neck. Even her breathing turns shallow. Good. She might think she has something to bargain with, but Kouga has already had enough of that from Miroku. The monk might regret it, if he ever learns how Kouga's irritation with him has translated to his treatment of this trespasser, but Kouga is only concerned that the Taijiya in front of him not make the same mistake.

It isn't that he intends to do terrible things to her and then lie about them, or hide them from Kagome. He doesn't intend to do anything, really, at all. He just doesn't want her to know that… and he doesn't want to be tempted any more than he already is to make the problem go away.

Mostly, he wants the woman to think of him as yōkai, as dangerous, as the threat that he is and nothing else, in case she proves to be a threat herself. He can't imagine how she might do so, or why she would choose to throw her life away, but she names herself Taijiya, and she knows things he would rather she didn't know.

If humans begin to approach him because they think Kagome's presence is a talisman of safety, there will be a problem. A large problem. The humans won't even have to do anything to cause one, their mere presence will instigate the elders of his pack – and some not-so elders.

As if she senses his troubled thoughts, the woman forces words past Kouga's grip on her throat in a carefully toneless voice. "I was sent with a message, from the daimyo in the north. For you and your miko." She lifts her hand, and he sees the seal on the paper in there for the first time.

The daimyo in the north. Another human. So, the large problem is already here –

Kouga has an instant of hesitation. It's not a regret, but a moment in which he acknowledges that for anyone less worthy than Kagome, he would certainly have many. This will be trouble, and he knows it. Trouble for him, and for his pack, and for his status, which he hasn't needed to enforce or protect for decades. Trouble for Kagome, which pains him most of all. He will face censure from his kind; from hers, when knowledge of her presence here spreads, she will face death.

But she accepted that when she took his hand, when she accompanied him, when she accepted his scent marks and said yes to his courtship. She accepts it a little more every day, by accepting him.

Can he do less?

Knuckle by knuckle, he relaxes his grip around the woman's throat. She falls, but only a few inches, and steadies herself immediately. He can see a warrior's training in the way she catches and carries herself, and she doesn't smell of deceit, only death. So. "Give me the message, Taijiya, and wait here."

She hesitates, but holds out the roll of paper without complaint. Good. There are many things that hesitation could be, but most of them are probably Kagome. Kagome, who she may not believe is with him of her own will. That, he can't blame her for. Who would believe it? He barely believes it.

Kagome, who she probably wants to rescue. That, he will blame her for, if she tries.

Kagome, with whom he will share this message, but who he wants to keep as far away from this woman and her daimyo as he possibly can. His memory of her confusion and panic about the trauma of this era is still too fresh in his mind. The world is at war, and that won't change any time soon, but won't it be worse for her the more deeply she gets involved? At least yōkai are honest about their intentions, no matter how terrible. Humans play tricks with words and games with promises.

Kouga spares Sango one more glance, and sees with satisfaction that his Wolves are returning to their vigil, keeping her penned in the cave. Then he turns back the way he came, and lopes back toward the den.

A/N: Who's still not dead? HA! It's me. Well. And Sango, I suppose. The title of this chapter, Clausum Fregit, means a lawful action taken against a trespasser… which she is. Stay tuned for some of her thoughts, and what Kagome's opinion of our Taijiya is!

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