XX

Tacitus Tempus

In the dim warmth of Kouga's chamber deep in the den, a slow, low wriggling line of pups makes their way one by one across the furs. He hasn't been gone ten minutes before the first of them makes his way in; most of them blend with the brown and black and grey of their surroundings, but their leader does not. Their leader is Sho, and he has come following the scent of the one whose power had taken away all his terrible pain.

Sho is bright and white, if tiny, and he makes his way to his savior's side before all the others and chooses prime place, snuggles between her arm and her chest. He scents blood – pain – power – herbs – strangeness – but most of all, more than anything else he scents Kouga and his claim, which makes this strange girl almost pack.

One by one, the other pups follow, restraining whines and tiny yuffs of noise. Little bodies wriggle close, pounce past each other and roll, trot and pad and crawl closer still until most of the fur Kagome has been laying beneath is dislodged; in its place she has a blanket of pups, pups sprawled across her legs and over her belly, pups tucked against her sides shoulders and lying along her outstretched arms.

A black-furred baby snuffles at her hair and sneezes, before sneaking beneath it. Sho, tiny though he is, shows milk teeth to the others that try to push in on his spot, and then gives in to the pressure that is a half dozen bodies all bigger than his crushing in close.

It is the way of things that the pups nap like this, generally with one of the older wolves at the center of their pile to keep watch on things. Kagome is not precisely pack, but she is not anything else, either – not food, though she smells like it; not dangerous, though she smells like that too. In the end, as Kouga had known it would, instinct compels them to accept her as they would accept any other female he had made a claim on.

Protect. Be near, this one...be near, and protect.

By the time Kouga returns from his session with the council, there is hardly anything of Kagome to be seen. One of her arms is flung up over her face; the bandaged portion of her side is visible, smooth skin and the linen that wraps around it – everywhere else, in every conceivable position, at every possible angle, a ball or a curl or a flop of fluff is taking up every inch of space. He stares for only a moment; he had expected a few of them to make their way in to investigate, not every pup in the den!

A low, rumbling growl of irritation sends some of the more wakeful pups scrambling out of his way, so that he can at least stand beside her. One of Kagome's closed eyes is visible beneath the curve of her arm, and he reaches down and begins to shove pups out of the way right and left, careful not to wake her. The little ones aren't the only wolves interested in cuddling Kagome, and she is his – pups they might be, but they aren't going to keep him from his woman.

Kouga is...not tired, exactly, but he wants a bit of rest now that he is home and the excitement has died down. He pulls out the tie that binds up his hair, and takes off his headband, unwraps his feet. Carefully, not wanting to wake the woman, Kouga wiggles his way in behind her. Growls wrangle space for him, but just when he thinks he can wrap an arm around Kagome and relax, a tiny yelp answers his motion and a muzzle wriggles its way out from between layers of fur, Kagome, and Kouga's body.

Scowling, Kouga reaches down and pulls out the offending pup and drops him in a less inconvenient spot. Kagome shifts a little as Kouga comes close behind her, presses her back against his chest and mumbles, brings her arm down across her side and then shifts it forward to snuggle Sho close against her body. She rubs her face against his fur, and then is still again.

Kouga lies down, one arm outstretched, the other draped carefully over Kagome's ribs, away from her wound, and then presses forward – and then almost shouts when a cold, wet nose and a pair of gleaming black eyes make themselves known from beneath the outspread curtain of Kagome's dark hair.

"Kuroku! Get out of there; in her hair, really!"

The black-furred pup, Kuroku, obeys, but only wriggles far enough out of Kagome's hair that there is finally room for Kouga to press himself full length against Kagome's back and snuggle against her as he wants to. He rubs his cheek against her hair and closes his eyes; he breathes deeply, savoring warmth and the soft odor of her sleeping body beside him.

I could get used to this...

When he has dozed off and they are certain of this, the pups he had dislodged come crawling out of corners and wriggling out from behind ledges and beneath furs. In a matter of minutes, the pile has reformed itself around Kagome and Kouga both.

The tip of Kouga's brown tail twitches lazily, and then is still.

A/N: All apologies oh mighty ones; this should've been up yesterday (as in at least 8 hours ago) but I died from the heat of the outside world and did not enliven until very shortly ago. So here is yesterday's chapter, with my apologies, and today's chapter will be up in a few hours - as soon as I get it done, in other words. So, the chapter title, "Tacitus Tempus" translates to "silent time"; and of course this is just a giant fluffy pile of doom, I am aware of this...some old enemies and some old friends begin to appear, starting in the next chapter, so once again - apologies, and keep an eye out for chapter 21 later today!

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