XIII

Lupi Mulieris

The matter of cooking causes some consternation for Kouga, who has never cooked a thing in his life and has no idea how to go about doing so. He carries nothing on him for the making of fire, and though he and Kagome both know it's possible to get a flame from rubbing sticks together neither one is sure how to do it.

In the end he uses a flash of youki from his right hand to light a bunch of sticks. Kagome sits back with a startled expression when the energy surges from him; she reaches out and touches his palm when it has faded and the fire is lit, and to Kouga's surprise she touches the point at the center where the shikon shard lies buried. It disturbs him; does she know it's there?

As soon as the thought occurs to him he accepts it; how could it be otherwise? There are shards of the shikon no tama inside her, far more than the single one he carries – and she is miko, too. She can see his youki – she was aware of him, of his presence, before she knew what it was she was aware of.

He folds his fingers over her hand and lifts it to his lips, kisses the back of her hand, the inside of her wrist; he does it absently, without thinking, distracted by his own thoughts. He licks the pulse point of Kagome's wrist and then lays her hand in her lap and stands, paces on the other side of the fire. He is aware of her pounding heartbeat, her embarrassment, her confusion as she puts her meat on to cook – but he doesn't concern himself with them. Not until she speaks does he turn to her, his nose wrinkled; the smell of boar cooking is burnt flesh to him, not appetizing, but she is breathing the aroma with a greedy flicker in her eyes and a good deal of impatience on her face.

"Kouga, your pack – what are they like? You mentioned a...um...Ginta?"

He grins.

"Yeah, I did. He's my beta – but his brother Hakkaku is, too. They're never apart, always together – even mated the same female. They share everything."

Kagome's eyes widen.

"Really? They have the same mate? That's like...that's like a wife, right?"

Kouga shakes his head.

"No. Well – yes, but no. A wolf's mate is his life; humans aren't like that when they bond."

Kagome thinks about the thousand marriages she's heard of - famous and personal, strangers and close friends' parents - that have dissolved.

"I...guess that's true. Wolves are lucky, then."

She smiles, and there is something yearning in it; what he's talking about is the deepest, most enchanting promise of storybook romance.

All he sees is the yearning; it sets his blood on fire.

"So...Ginta's the one who knows about humans – what about Hakkaku, then? And are there more wolves in your pack?"

Kouga nods and comes back to sit beside her.

"Hakkaku keeps track of other youkai; the wolf packs in the north and south, and the great council of elders...but those are youkai secrets."

His voice teases her; his fingers reach out to her hair, stroke the smoothness of it, run through the length of it; compulsive movements, unconscious, as if he were her brother, or a lover – and she notices, and does not complain even though it is strange to her. Wolfishness, she thinks – and what right has she to tell him not to be who he is, what he is? Youkai he might be, but he doesn't act like terror from an ancient story or the horror that dragged her out of the future and into this.

Besides, it feels nice.

"There're wolf secrets too, Kagome. You'll have to earn them, little by little; you'll have to be one of us before you can know what we know. And there's lots more wolves in my pack than just those two idiots – maybe sixty of us, if you count all the pups."

She grins, leans toward him and then back again sharply as she feels pain.

"Kagome? Kagome -"

She waves a hand at him and breathes shallow breaths until the twinge has passed.

"Don't worry, I just keep forgetting I can't really move much – ah! And my meat is burning!"

Kagome reaches hurriedly but carefully with a clean bit of twig and flips her piece of boar, considering her companion all the while. She looks at him out of the corner of her eye; his forehead still bears wrinkles of concern and she can't help but smile.

She thinks he is still concerned for her, and he is, but not in the way she is thinking. When she stretched, when she felt pain, the scent of her blood accosted him. It is the sweetest thing he has ever scented; the fragrance itself is not the trouble, just the urges it ignites. He has his own ideas of things he would like to do to her, but that odor will be dangerous near his pack though he has no choice but to bring her among them if he wants to keep her – and he does so want to keep her.

He must make it known to them that she is his, his to keep, his to touch, his to protect – but words are not enough to make that clear to all his wolves. Some are pups, merely beasts, not true youkai – as all pups are before their hundredth year.

"Kagome -"

She is eating when he turns to look at her, holding her bit of boar speared on the twig she had used to flip it and taking small bites from the edges. Hunger is all the sauce she needs, and he is amused by her neatness and the flashing of her blunt teeth as she snaps at it, almost like a wolf herself.

"Kagome I'm not sure how to ask you what I've got to ask you, so I'm just going to say it, all right?"

She blinks at him, and swallows, and then nods.

"I need to mark you, Kagome. So that the pack knows you're mine and off limits for -"

He winces a bit and looks away from her.

Something that's going to have to change.

"...Off limits for eating."

Kouga peers at her with his head turned, barely opening one eye, but the explosion he is anticipating doesn't materialize.

"Oh. Well that's alright then – you don't have to..um...pee on me or anything, though, do you?"

Consent? No explosion? A joke? She doesn't mind being his – being marked by a wolf? Everything possessive within him, urge and instinct, rises to the surface, shouting, and he moves forward and kneels at her feet and shakes his head.

"No, Kagome, I'm not going to pee on you. Silly woman – just stay still. This is going to be hard enough as it is with that wound there, so no squirming."

She nods, bemused, and then he is leaning forward over her, his body a hovering heat above her skin; she feels the softness of his tail moving back and forth against the back of her left hand, rustling the grass beside it, tickling her thigh – but then she can barely breathe and her thoughts are frozen.

Kouga's cheek rubs against her cheek; his breathing is deep, calm, almost drowsy in its rhythm, but Kagome can feel her heart pounding again, her lips trembling; is this what he meant about marking her? He turns his head and rubs against her other cheek – against her jaw – beneath her chin – against her throat. It's like a kiss, but not – still incredibly intimate. He leans back just a little, and reaches for her left hand, and stays on his knees, straddling her legs, while he rubs his cheek against her fingers, the palm and back of her hand, her wrist -

"Kouga – Kouga -"

Her voice flutters in her throat, comes out faint and breathless, but Kouga doesn't stop; he is intent now, and nearly drugged with sweetness.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"No -"

"Good."

A/N: It's 4:00 am here...and that means 6/17 gets a chapter! What is Kouga doing? Why scent-marking of course; wolves have scent glands in their cheeks below their eyes, as well as at the top of their tail – but really, can you see Kouga rubbing his butt all over Kagome? I know, I can too, and it's hilarious! Now let's see...today's title "Lupi Mulieris" means "the wolf's woman" oh so very subtle, I know. Much thanks to ye who have reviewed; those of you who are writers know what reviews feel like, but for the rest of you, it's sort of like your favorite flavor of ice cream topped with Absolute Ego. A massive writing night with Velvet_Sometimes means that I now have tons of advance chapters – and that's she's got updates, which you should see. I promise, you won't regret it xD More tomorrow, of course!

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