Kouga turned his head and spat blood, leaning up on one arm. His blue eyes were twin pinpoints of rage. The attack had been sudden and unwarrented. It had been a show of dominance. He couldn't stop the way his lips curled anymore than he could stop the rumbling in his chest. Alpha. Fucking Alpha. It hadn't taken them long to replace him, had it?
How dare they?
The thought of someone steering him had his demon clawing at his insides. There was a difference between a show of dominace, suboridance and supreme idiocy. This bastard had to be all three, Kouga decided.
Fucking Alpha.
Every Pack required an Alpha, someone who had to fight their way to the top. And he was no longer that. He was nothing more than a...than a ...subordinate.
Of course they would. That knowledge hit harder than it should have.
"Get off me." Kouga snarled. He could have thrown the Wolf Demon off him, but he didn't. He didn't do anything.
"Are we clear?" The Wolf didn't so much as move, if anything he pressed harder with his foot.
Kouga clenched his teeth. He knew what was wanted, what was required. Acquiescence. Kouga's pride demanded he give it to the Alpha. This mutt was his Alpha. His Alpha.
"Or do you want to fight, see who has the bigger balls?" Even as the Wolf Demon reprimanded in a mocking tone, he lifted his foot and stood to his full height.
Fucking asshole. Alpha. Kouga sat up grudgingly and wiped at the blood beneath his nose. He stood, his hands balling into fists. He didn't answer because any retort he would have made would have turned into another blood brawl. When he lifted his head, his eyes burned red at the edges as he stared at the other. And then he lowered his gaze slightly to the right, over the mans shoulder.
A sign of submission to ones Alpha. A sign of respect. And oh, it was a humility that Kouga did not feel. He was bristling on the inside, barely able to keep himself in check. He had been Alpha for what felt like centuries. It was in his blood to rule. He could take this fucker, he knew. Bring him to his knees in a fight for who was the true Alpha.
A Wolf's pride, its Pack, demanded more than that. He was a pure Wolf and he knew better than anyone the loyalty in a Pack.
How many times had he broken Pack mentality in the past?
More times than he could count, but it had all been for the greater good. Not every Wolf agreed with how he had done things and some had openly challenged him. This Wolf was here to show him who was in charge and he knew Kouga would come to heel.
Pride.
"I think you came to the wrong place, that's what I think." Kagome interrupted and Kouga jerked his gaze to her.
Kagome was fuming on the inside, nearly lighting up with it. Everyone could feel that hidden rage. She didn't show an ounce of fear as she stared down the Wolf who stood toe to toe with Kouga. Kouga should have been beating him into a bloody pulp. He wasn't, so she was going to do it for him.
"I don't think your bitch knows who I am." The Wolf Demon said.
Something in Kouga snapped and he jerked the Wolf Demon up by his furred armor so his clawed toes were barely dangling from the ground. "That's my Mate you're talking about."
"Your Mate, our Luna, right?" The new Alpha taunted, in no way intimidated by Kouga's sudden anger. "Some Pack's share their Luna; do you?"
He hit a rough point and Kouga knew it; he just didn't care. The Alpha was disrespecting Kagome and that Kouga couldn't allow. He wouldn't. He was digging deep, trying to draw out Kouga's ire and damn if he hadn't succeeded. Kouga drew his fist back and hit hard. Bone cracked, a satisfying sound. He was studiously pointing out that Kagome had belonged to another. It didn't matter that there was a twisted half truth behind that.
Some Packs did share their females. But Kagome wasn't just his Mate. She was his. HIS.
Thinking back on it, he didn't know how he had survived letting her go back to Inuyasha all those years ago. It was a primal awareness that he felt. Kagome was his Mate. He was in as far as he could get. There was no other for him. His soulmate.
Wolves Mated for life.
While he knew this Alpha had no intention of calling forth breeder rights, Kouga just couldn't let that insult stand. "You may be my Alpha, but I'll gut you before you touch her."
The Wolf Demon's head snapped back from the sudden assault and then he gave a bloody grin. He leaped and slammed Kouga back against a tree, his forearm against his throat. "Which is exactly why I'm not gonna ban you from the Pack. You've got balls. Big ones, apparently. You know Wolf mentality and you know Pack. There's not many like you..." He gave a warning curl of his lips, mimicking Kouga's bare of canines. "Are we clear?"
Kouga's hackles rose. It was killing him on the inside. Respect. Pack mentality. "When it comes to protecting my friends, my family and my heart..." Kouga lowered his voice. His heart was Kagome. "...don't fuck with me. I'll be the most relentless Wolf you will ever know." It was as much as he could give. It wasn't in his nature to submit when he was born to rule. His eyes as cold as ice, he looked over the Wolf Demon's shoulder. "Stop, Kagome."
Kagome paused, her eyes narrowed. Her hands were drawn back, the spiritual energy writhing in her hands in the shape of a bow and arrow. Her heart beat a steady rythm. She wasn't scared. She was furious. Her fingers itched to release the energy. She watched as the Wolf Demon lowered his arm from Kouga's neck and then looked at her over his shoulder before turning.
"She may be a human, and a Priestess at that, but I respect her for what she did in defeating Naraku." The Alpha's gaze dropped to her stomach. "And the fact that she is carrying a member of our Pack." His gaze shot back to Kouga. "Even if you watered down a line of pure linage."
Kouga bit back a snarl of rage at that. Yeah, he'd done that, but he didn't give a shit. His pup was going to be pure strength of mind and body, no matter how much human blood ran through his or her veins.
"He's not Pack. He's mine." Kagome said coldly.
"Human, you're part of this Pack. What's yours is ours."
Energy flared up around Kagome, the spiritual light between her hands throwing off sparks as her emotions went a little haywire. A muscle in Kouga's cheek ticked. "Her name is Kagome."
Did he think he was going to take her baby? That she was going to let him be raised by a Pack of hungry wolves? In some part of Kagome's mind, she knew that wasn't what he meant. She knew Kouga would never allow that to happen. There was no intention whatsoever of anyone taking their child, but that wasn't what her mind was taking in. The child was Kouga's. He was going to have Wolf traits, he was going to be raised around his Pack. But she didn't like this wolf and he was causing her to see red.
She wasn't thinking. She was reacting.
Kouga cursed and jerked this dip shit of an Alpha down to the ground as Kagome let loose that energy. It sailed past, exploding in a ball of light where the Wolf Demon had stood. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and shit if Kagome wasn't going to have at him later for that.
"You're dead." Kagome said, notching another arrow and letting it fly.
Kouga rolled and shoved the Wolf Demon out of the way. "Kagome, wait! Stop, dammit." His stomach rolled at the look Kagome sent him, the confusion and anger rolling through her brown eyes. He had a lot of explaining to do. But things were going to get really, really bad if Kagome killed someone here today.
What the fuck was he doing? Was he really defending this son of a bitch? The air around her crackled and her spiritual energy fused so high that the grass around her feet grew, tiny little flowers blooming. The wolves on the edge of the forest took off in their direction, as if knowing just how much shit was about to go down and they were salvinating at the mouth.
Not if she had anything to say about it.
She lifted her hands and Kouga was suddenly behind her, his arms coming up from behind to trap her arms against her chest.
"Don't." Kouga bit out, his fingers locked around her wrists. Her entire body fused with energy and she gave off a pink glow. She wanted that bastard dead. She wanted those wolves dead. That Wolf Demon baring his fangs at her had insulted her, threatened her baby and hurt Kouga. Behind her, Kouga cursed loudly as smoke began to rise from his skin where he touched her.
Shit, shit, shit-
"HEEL!" The Wolf Demon snapped out suddenly and the wolves charging across the field came to a halt.
Kouga didn't release her, if anything he held her squirming body tighter. His breath hissed out as his skin burned, the flesh of his palms sizzling with smoke where he held her. "Kagome, you're kinda burning the shit out of me." He choked out.
The logical thing to do would be to let her go, but he wasn't. He knew that. Kagome knew that. Regardless, her energy zapped out completely, but it was still there beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to let loose.
Kagome drew in a deep breath, her body tense. "Let me go." She felt the shake of Kouga's head against the back of hers. She counted to five silently. "Now."
"Not until you listen." Kouga said.
"I suggest you listen to him." The Wolf Demon said and Kagome stiffened. Kagome jerked her body tighter against his, warning her without words that any spiritual lashing she gave would also hurt him. At least she was listening to that.
"Shut up." Kouga snarled at the Alpha.
"Are you missing where he came and knocked the shit out of you? Or am I the only one that saw that?" Kagome said slowly. Her eyes never left the Wolf Demon who merely lifted his lip again.
"When I left, I went to go see the Elders. I had to tell them about...us." Pack mentality required that.
Us. Their baby, Kagome knew. She didn't say anything else and Kouga took that as his cue to continue.
Kouga didn't know how else to explain the current situation, so he said it straight out. "I'm no longer Alpha of the Pack." He bit out.
Kagome took a deep breath again, her chest rising and falling beneath their arms. Finally, she tilted her head back and looked up at him. "What?" Her eyes narrowed. What did he mean he was no longer Alpha? She knew Kouga well enough to know that he wouldn't have lost any fight put up against him for Alpha, just as she knew he would never...willingly...step down.
What was going on?
"He's the new Alpha." Kouga nodded with his chin towards their would-be opponent.
WHAT THE HELL?
"What I did was a disgrace where the Pack was concerned. You. Me. Inuyasha. So the Elders renounced my position. He's..." He hated the words. "...my Alpha."
Kouga was no longer...The Wolves had taken away his position because he'd knocked her up? Kagome didn't fully understand why, but she understood a wolves pride. Her eyes narrowed. "Take it back then."
He shook his head. "That's not how things work."
"That's not how any of this works." The Alpha threw in and Kouga felt Kagome tense in his arms.
Kouga looked to the skies. Ye Gods, if they felt any pity towards him...
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