XIV

Cadent, Proruere

Kouga holds Kagome still, his hands on her waist just below where she was wounded, and leans down to rub his cheeks against her chest, her breasts, her belly. Strange scents are in the fabric, the same tainted odors of strange smoke that cling to her skin and hair, but his own scent comforts him, so close to hers. Before he knows what he's doing his arms are around her; he feels her tense in surprise, and then her hands reaching down to rest on his shoulders, to stroke the length of his bound hair.

"How long will it take, Kouga? Before you're done?"

She is trying to be business-like about this, but it's hard with his face pressed against her; his voice comes out muffled and she feels his breath against her skin.

Heat.

"Not nearly long enough."

She blushes, but then they are laughing together, and still -

Neither of them move.

It seems like a long while later when he sits up and then moves back so that he can sit and lay her legs across his lap. He lifts them one at a time; the bare skin is enticing, terribly enticing, and yet she is modest, virginal, pure – innocent. The scent of her skin is the scent of the morning and this time he is sure he is drugged, when he rubs his cheek against that pale skin, holds her slender, squirming ankle in one hand – Kagome trembles when he moves past her knee, his eyes blazing blue now beneath half-lowered lids, his breath slow – deep – somnolent.

The skin of her thigh is smooth as silk. All he can sent from her is arousal and anxiety, because she knows that having gone this far she must sit through it again – and does, does, even though by the time he is finished her fingernails are dark with dirt and her fists are full of grass.

Kouga is pleased beyond belief; she wants him – even if she doesn't know what she wants. Such an innocent; so powerful to be so naïve, this Kagome...but then perhaps her future is a softer place.

He has no idea. Everything she's seen since the moment she arrived in the past, not even knowing it was the past, has been one shock after another. She can only accept, not analyze; not yet.

He lays drowsing in Kagome's lap for long minutes after he is through marking her; his scent is all over her now, a promise of pain to any who seek to harm her, ownership in the clearest youkai terms. That she has allowed him to declare possession of her was pleasing enough on its own; that she seems to mean it, that she wants him is...ecstasy.

I wonder how long she'll let me lie here...

Her fingers play with his hair; her eyes are on the horizon and the view of the mountains as the mist moves back and forth across the afternoon landscape. Eventually, she speaks, and Kouga lifts his head from her lap and sits back.

"Kouga, why did you have to do that – um – marking...thing?"

"My pack."

"Ah...you said that before, but...is there an option for a longer answer?"

He eyes her for a moment and then turns away to look at the horizon. How to explain? How not to frighten her away?

"You're mine now, as far as my pack knows, because my scent is on you and that claims you so that even the least among them can understand. Otherwise – otherwise you'd be in danger. Did you think I was joking – what I said before? My wolves – they're man-eaters – they're dangerous to you, Kagome."

She doesn't hear the husky softness of her own voice when she answers him.

"I didn't think you were joking, Kouga – but you've taken care of me and from the moment I saw you I trusted you; I don't know why. You've been helping me – I don't know what I'd be doing if it weren't for you. Having hysterics, probably."

He grins.

"What else was I going to do? You weren't what I expected to find when I went running toward that light, but once I saw you I couldn't leave you. I couldn't let you die."

"Or let your wolves eat me?"

She is teasing, but a dangerous hunger that has nothing of the stomach in it flies dark-winged across his face.

"Never. No matter what, I'd keep you for myself."

He leans forward and rubs his cheek against her cheek again; her flush is just as quick as the first time, but this time she rubs back against him. He smiles, but the wind changes then, and comes to him from the north. With it comes terrible odors – blood; carnage; chaos; death. Strange youkai – not pack. Not even wolves – strangers. Marauders; murderers.

She sees his face change but has no awareness of the cause; he sits suddenly stiff, nostrils flaring, thoughts racing.

He feels a sudden convulsion of guilt that he has been off chasing this woman, however precious, while his pack has been in danger – and then he scoops up Kagome and the bag of medicines and is running, running faster than he's ever run in his life.

Ginta.

Hakkaku.

You two – better be all right -

A/N: It can't be sweet and light forever; whatever happens next, I wonder? We'll find out...tomorrow! Today's title, "Cadent, Proruere", means "Fall, Fall forward".

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