Chapter Sixteen

Once they were alone, Kouga cupped his hands over her knees. "Talk to me, Kagome."

He didn't need her to just talk, he needed her to tell him. It wasn't that she'd just found out. She could have told him when they were alone earlier. Instead, she'd let him walk away unknowing of what lay between them. The thought angered him, but he kept himself in check. She would have told him eventually. But he had a right to know. From the very start, he had that right.

The cost of his pride was too much not to know.

Kagome could hear the leashed fury in his voice. She could feel it in his demonic aura. Even as gruesome a Demon as he was, he was always gentle with her. Talk. He wanted to talk. She forced herself to meet his blue eyes. "I was going to. I swear, Kouga. I was just..." She was what? "...scared."

"Scared of what?" Kouga encouraged her to talk, to fucking tell him. They couldn't tip toe around this. He wasn't going to let her. "You let me walk away, Kagome. You knew—and you didn't tell me."

Kagome looked away but he lifted his hands and cupped her face, directing her back towards him. What he was saying in silence was easily read. He wasn't going to let her hide from his. He wasn't going to let her hide from him.

"I was scared of what just happened." She admitted.

"It was gonna happen sooner or later." It shouldn't have had to happen like this and they both knew it.

Kagome considered it her own fault that events had lead to this. She'd waited, fearful of hurting both demons and in the end, she'd hurt all three, herself included.

"Inuyasha couldn't hurt me even if he tried." Kouga lamented. "And I will kill him before I let him hurt you or my pup." And if Inuyasha tried to take his pup...Inuyasha would wish for death. Inuyasha's departing expression eased the tension in Kouga, though.

Kouga knew Inuyasha wasn't happy with the ordeal, but he knew the mutt saw his own end.

He looked down at Kagome's stomach. Pride filled him. He reached out and looked up when he felt Kagome tense. His eyes met hers for a moment before locking on her abdomen again. He paused, as if asking silent permission. Slowly, he pressed his palm against her stomach. He had to. The connection between them was small there and even though he couldn't feel it, even though he couldn't sense it—his nose didn't lie.

He didn't doubt the child was his. Kagome wouldn't lie about something so crucial.

Kagome gave a hesitant sigh. "I'm really pregnant, aren't I?" She asked softly, finally saying the words out loud. She stared down at his tanned, clawed hand.

Kouga nodded. He didn't understand where the term 'pregnant' came from, but he knew the meaning. Yes, she was with child. With his pup. He nodded again. "It's why you're sick." He murmured. "Why you can't bear another's touch." He gave a wry grin, though there was no humor behind it. "It's part of being a Wolf Demon, it happens when you Mate. For a while, anyways."

"We're not..."

Kouga sighed at the unfinished sentence. "I know." The thought plagued him daily and even more so now. "But my demon blood runs through his veins and he is a part of you." It didn't explain everything, but that was the only excuse he could think of. He couldn't explain something he didn't even understand himself.

Dammit.

He knew Kagome was still on the verge of breaking down. He lifted his hands and cupped her face. He swept his clawed thumbs over her damp cheeks. "It's gonna be alright, Kagome. I can't promise things'll be easy, but everything's gonna be alright."

"I don't know anything about being a mom." Kagome admitted. She didn't know how to raise a human child, much less a demon one.

"You raised the kitsune." Kouga offered with a small smile. He didn't know why she kept telling herself she couldn't be a mother. He could already see her holding their pup with that sweet smile of hers.

"That was different."

"You're not in this alone, Kagome." He was going to be right along side her. He'd witnessed the birth of cubs before. He'd watched them from birth to adulthood.

"If you can put up with me for nine months..."

He'd put up with her for over three years, what did that have to do with anything? He snorted. "A demons pregnancy is four months, I think. You don't have to wait nine months."

Four...four months? Four months? Oh God, she was going to give birth to a little hair ball in four months? She didn't know why, but the shorter time frame brought things into a different perspective. Four months, maybe five, wasn't long at all...it was insanely short.

"Am I going to have puppies?" It sounded ridiculous even to her, but she had to ask. She'd meant what she said. She knew nothing about demon pregnancies.

Kouga's lips twitched. Puppies? With ears and tails? His lips twitched again before he laughed and then pulled her forward and kissed her before she could stop him. "No, Kagome. You're going to have a baby." He murmured against her lips with a smile tugging at his. "He's going to look just like you. He's going to have your eyes." He ran a clawed hand through her hair. "He's going to have your hair."

All Kagome could do was stare at him. How did he always manage to do that? He made her smile. He stole kisses. "He's got to have something from you, too."

"He'll have my attitude."

He made her want to laugh and cry at the same time so she did both.

Kouga had done what he'd set out to do. Things may not have went exactly as he'd wanted, but he'd progressed forward. Kagome didn't deserve to be burdened. He would take the burden for her and anyone who looked down on her would be burdened by him.

There was no more hiding. He was going to have to take the time to win Kagome over. He hadn't won her completely—not yet. The pup was unexpected, but it was a step in a certain direction.

But for now, as he left her sleeping in the extra room Sango had provided, Kouga knew he had harsher realities to face. He couldn't leave it to chance that his pack wouldn't get wind of Kagome's pregnancy. And if his pack knew, then the Elders would know. It was going to happen.

He'd rather be the one to tell the "good" news, than to let Fate decide and the Elders have to call on him.