InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Facets of the Living Jewel ❯ A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters. Ms. Takahashi does.

 

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Inuyoukai[thoughts]

Inuhuman (thoughts)

`Thoughts'

 

 

A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi

by Licentia poetica

 

Kouga had decided to pay a visit to Kagome. `I haven't seen her in a while, and besides I get to annoy the hell out of mutt-face. I haven't had a whiff of Naraku lately and I need a break from the Pack. Time to have some fun!' He was traveling along in his mile-devouring lope, enjoying the smells and sounds of the summer day, when suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks.

 

He could feel a vibration thrumming in the air, warning other males away from the territory. `That's a Mate Call.' He resisted the urge to leave the area. `And it's a powerful alpha male.'

 

He paused, assessing the scents and vibrations. No male made those sounds unless he had a new mate with him, and Kouga knew of no Pack members in the area.

 

`What the hell? In Kagome's territory? My Pack doesn't travel here `cause I won't let `em feed. Kagome doesn't like it.' He carefully tested the scents in the air. `Damnit. I can't smell a male, and I've thrashed anyone strong enough to challenge me here, so it's gotta be a rogue male. Someone new.'

 

The vibration deepened and Kouga began to growl in response. `Damnit. I was counting on that mutt-face to keep other males away. He's no challenge to me, even though Kagome's got that weird fixation with him…but at least with that sword he was some protection.'

 

He hesitated to move forward. He could not smell the male, and the fact that the subsonic vibrations could reach a distance where his sensitive nose wasn't able to pick up the scent was a cause for caution. `With the shards in my legs, I'm faster than any male out there, but to make those sounds reach this far means this male's powerful.'

 

He moved cautiously forward toward the sounds and Kagome's village. On a slight breeze, he suddenly smelled Kagome. `Damn! That's not only her normal scent! She's been crying…and that musky smell is arousal…and damnit! She's near the vibrations from the Mate Call!'

 

His possessiveness for the woman that he had planned to make his mate overrode his caution. He picked up his pace. `If she's crying, something must be wrong. Perhaps the male's trying to force her.'

 

Forcing a female to mate was absolutely foreign to wolves but he had heard of it in the human world and didn't know what kind of youkai was making the Mate Call. He raced in Kagome's direction, noting on a subconscious level that the Call had stopped. He slid to a stop when he reached the clearing where her scent was strongest and glared up into the tree where she was sitting.

 

`Kagome. And the mutt-face?' He stared in shock for one moment before other aspects of the scene registered in his brain. `The mutt-face!!?? And she's sitting with her head under the asshole's chin, neck bared to his fangs! She's submissive?'

 

He rocked back on his heels, feeling off balance. He had never seriously thought of Inuyasha as a rival but, if Kagome was submissive, he was violating Pack Law and Inuyasha was within his rights to kill any male who ignored the warning of the Mate Call. `I'm alpha in my own Pack, but I'm out of my range without an alpha female and if they're mated I'm alone in their territory. I have to respect the Law.'

 

He was about to turn away when suddenly he shook his head. His confidence in his own abilities and the fact that the male was someone that he had always dismissed as a challenger allowed him to forget about the power in the Call that he had just heard. `We're talking about the mutt, here! What Pack Law!' He growled up at the couple.

 

Inuyasha had been growling softly while watching his rival hesitate, but at Kouga's growl he tightened his arms around Kagome and his youki flared.

 

[Kill him. He has violated Pack Law.]

 

(We've got Kagome up here and she sits us whenever we threaten him. We have to be careful.)

 

`We've got control of the situation…I think.'

 

He growled fiercely and let his elongated fangs show, ears flat back on his head. “Oi, nosy wolf! What are you doing here?”

 

Kouga looked up at the hanyou and hesitated again. Inuyasha's eyes were narrowed and cold but they were also, just faintly, tinged with red, giving their normal golden hue a copper cast. He looked away from the threat in those eyes and stared at Kagome.

 

Kagome blushed. `Why did he have to show up now? Even though it wasn't a storybook kiss, Inuyasha is holding me and…I'm not sure what it means but it feels good. Now I'm going to have to deal with a jealous hanyou and I know we're going to fight.' She tried to ease away from him to try to defuse the situation, but his hold around her waist was firm.

 

Kouga saw the slight movement and snarled. “Bastard! What are you doing to Kagome!”

 

“Nothing she doesn't want, asshole. You're in the way!”

 

Kagome gave a start. Inuyasha's voice was oddly resonant; deeper and more powerful than she had ever heard it.

 

Kouga looked at Kagome. `She doesn't seem to be fighting the hold that mutt-face has on her and she definitely smells aroused, but she's been crying. What the hell?' He grew annoyed and confused. “Why are you submitting to that puppy, Kagome? You are supposed to be my mate!”

 

“Submitting? Submitting!” Kagome began to lose her temper. “Just what kind of hentai are you, Kouga? I'm not submitting to anything!” She raised her fisted hands, frustrated and fed up. “I keep telling you that I'm not your mate! I like you, it's true, but I'm not interested in being your mate! And I'm an educated, independent, self-reliant woman! Submitting! Gaah!” She folded her arms, huffed, and fumed silently. `I wish that I was down on the forest floor. I could stalk off! Stupid males and their stupid attitudes!'

 

Now both males were confused.

 

(Well. I wondered if it would work.) Inuyasha's human side sounded disappointed.

 

[She does not understand our ways. Patience. Give me the full moon and I will teach her.]

 

`No way, asshole. We're not ready yet.' Inuyasha sighed. `We have to get her to safety in the village before we come back to beat the shit out of the wolf for bothering us.'

 

“Kagome. Do you want down?” He reluctantly loosened his tight hold around her.

 

Kagome stirred. `His voice is back to normal but it sounds strained. Something important just happened, but I have no idea what it meant.' She turned back to look at Inuyasha but he averted his eyes and his ears were drooped. `I must have hurt him, but I don't know how. What have I done? What can I do to fix it?'

 

All at once, she sensed a force within her. It flowed from her heart and mind and beat against her temples. She noticed that the dust motes in the air were frozen in place. There was no movement in the trees, no wind, no sound, no sensations; time was frozen. In her mind she could see strands in the air, bending and shifting around her, tracking off in every direction. It was as if she was surrounded by a nimbus of light rays. As she looked closer at each beam, she could see tiny visions of those around her—Inuyasha, Kouga, and echoing images of herself. Some of the strands faded to darkness, and she instinctively knew they were dangerous. Others….

 

`I've traveled the others before. I don't know how I know that, but they bring me back to this same spot, this same time, this same situation again and again.'

 

Abruptly three light strands coalesced in front of her. In one, she climbed on Inuyasha's back and he took her to the village. Then the vision in the light passed beyond her ability to see it. In another, she turned to Inuyasha and kissed him on the lips. Kouga left the area, obviously angry, and once again the image passed beyond sight. In the third, she sat back into Inuyasha's chest, flipped her hair off of her shoulder, and bared her neck to him again. It appeared that the three of them then conversed as the light strand continued to track away.

 

The pressure in her temples increased and intuitively she knew she must make a choice for one of the three paths. `It's so hard! I know I've been here before. I know I have, and I made the wrong decision.'

 

Confusion and disbelief warred with the insistent, almost physical pressure to decide on a path. She felt trapped. `What is going on?'

 

She felt herself disintegrating, being pulled into all the paths at once. Taking a deep mental breath, she relied on her heart to help her make the right choice and moved forward to one of the paths.

 

As she did, she heard a deep male voice say “Beloved, it is Time.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Translations:

A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi: Latin; a precipice in front, wolves behind (caught between a rock and a hard place).