InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Invitations to Trouble ❯ Aftermath ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter Eighteen

Feeling extremely relieved, Kenami made her way back towards her small camp. As she walked slowly through the semi-darkness of the starlit night, her foot brushed up against a patch of velvety moss.

'I miss you beloved.' she thought sadly. 'I wish I had never left your side.'

Kneeling to rub her fingers over the feathery growth, her lips curved into a bitter smile as the touch took her back.

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Moving quickly around the small den, Kenami slid the baby-soft yellow kimono over her shoulders. Smoothing the fabric with trembling hands, she turned and headed back out the entrance with the full intention of returning to fight by Kouga's side.

The need for clothing had been the only reason she had left him alone in the first place. After all, she couldn't very well battle in the nude could she?

"Kouga might be used to that but I'm not some wild woman."

The image of herself wrapped enthusiastically around the handsome ookami like a second skin banished the previously haughty notion. Kenami blushed hotly at the memory.

"Okay, maybe I am."

Climbing out of the grassy opening that Kouga had thoughtfully widened before he took her to bathe, Kenami briefly touched the earthen wall before heading to a nearby tree.

'He was always doing something like that for me.' Mentally combing through the numerous little gestures that had been made on her behalf, Kenami clenched her hands tightly as she fought her tears.

'When I couldn't hold the cup of tea, he'd keep it steady. He never complained or said anything back to me. Even when I was cursing the fact that his mother had spawned his neck-biting ass, he was still kind."

Biting her lip at the wave of remorse washing over her, she wished that she hadn't been so stubborn. 'I am such a baka!'

After running a thoughtful finger over the crook of her neck, Kenami grabbed a low hanging tree limb and easily swung up onto it. Hopping lightly from one limb to the other, she took the leafy highway back to the river.

'I'll make it up to you koi. Now that I'm healed, I can fight beside you and I feel stronger than before.' The forest around her whizzed by as she sprang lightly through the verdant world which was being slowly tinted a somber red by the setting sun.

'I know I can help you!'

Picking up the sound of raised voices ahead, she slowed and half-crouched on a narrow branch a short distance away to listen.

'I don't hear any fighting so what was he so afraid of?'

The rich timbre that belonged to the ookami prince shot through the air.

"I won't let you touch her you old fuck!" heart fluttering wildly at the possessive growl in Kouga's voice, the girl jumped lightly to another tree to try and peer through the dense foliage.

"I don't want to kill anyone my boy" came the sardonic reply, "I just want to meet this paragon of femininity that had you wasting so much time and manpower trying to her." Kenami didn't think it was possible to feel violently ill after what she and Kouga had shared just a moment ago, but she reflexively clamped a hand over her roiling stomach at the sound of that horrid voice.

The thick, gravelly tenor felt slimy against her skin, as though it could stain whatever it touched with an indelible corruption. Just hearing it made the pallid girl wish she could shove her fingers inside her ears to block out the sound of it. Her hands stayed where they were though as she continued to listen to the quarreling youkai.

"I'm here because I was concerned that you might be making a large and costly mistake boy. I came in order to correct it." There was an ominous pause that raised the hackles on the back of Kenami's neck.

'No you didn't. You definitely came here for a reason, but I don't think you have Kouga's welfare in mind at all.' Kouga echoed her silent sentiment aloud, but added a colorful flair that was all his own. Kenami would have applauded his bravado but she was too close to risk any noise.

'Close enough to be heard, but not close enough to see anything.' Ruby eyes rolled depreciatively, 'Way to go Kenami.'

Indeed, from where she was currently perched she could barely make out the back of Kouga's head and nothing at all of the other man. Razor-sharp claws bit into the wood as she saw her mate's head suddenly rock back from an unseen blow.

'He hit Kouga!'

Snarling inaudibly, Kenami sprang to another tree in an effort to see who the attacker was but more of the dense foliage blocked her view. All she could hear was that same nasty voice when it announced the identity of the speaker to the world at large.

"I am the leader of this pack Kouga and you know damned well that means only I can approve a mate for you. You don't have to worry about finding some stray girl anymore Kouga, because I've already had a mate chosen for you for some time now." A hint of disgust crept into the speaker's words, making them more unpleasant than before.

"However, If I had known that you only wanted to go to bed with something I would have told you sooner."

"Trust you to only see that aspect of a mate my lord." Wiping at his bloodied lip, Kouga tried to ignore the way his sire was mocking him. "And who exactly did you choose for me? Since you think I'm such a waste of your time and effort, I can't imagine you doing me any favors."

After a lengthy silence, the gruff voice dropped to a dangerous growl. "Watch it boy. Just because some woman caught your eye, don't let that passing urge to fuck her make you think you're a man. You're a whelp and whelps should be grateful for whatever they're given."

The foulness of the ookami lord made Kenami shiver on her perch. She might have argued with her own mother from time to time, but neither one of them had ever spoken to each other with such utter disregard.

'That's Lord Gorotsuki? H-How could Kouga's father, or any father treat his son like this?'

The Kouga she had watched over the last two days was a complete opposite of the man she could hear. 'With a dad like that, I'm amazed Kouga's not a raving lunatic.' Now understanding why Kouga didn't just put an end to the sadistic bastard taunting him, Kenami crept closer still as Gorotsuki continued.

"Since I'm feeling generous, I'll ignore your smart mouth today boy. This time. The mate I had my eye on for you is Kenjin's granddaughter Ayame."

There was a sharp hiss of displeasure from Kouga that made Kenami's ears twitch but Gorotsuki only ignored him.

"With the two of you mated, I can add the territory of the white wolves to my own and increase my holdings. So you can forget about whoever this dog-girl is that you're looking for Kouga because I won't let you have her."

One more jaunt to another tree let Kenami see the scowl marring Kouga's face as he stared at his father. Letting her eyes finally settle on the figure that until now had only been a droning noise in her ears, she gave a small start at the sight of the ookami lord.

'They don't even look alike.'

Indeed, where Kouga was golden muscle and speed, Gorotsuki carried an air of ample girth the was piled firmly upon his bones much like that of a wrestler's. Watching one of those massive hands idly break chips off of a small boulder, Kenami understood another part of her beloved's concerns.

'Not only is he unpleasant to look at, Gorotsuki is stronger than he appears.'

Crossing his arms, Kouga's eyes narrowed a bit.

"Even if I hadn't met Kenami, I still wouldn't mate with Ayame. You know good and well that we don't see each other as anything more than siblings. Pairing us together wouldn't do you any good because there would never be any pups to solidify your claim to the white wolves territories."

A twist of flaccid lips brought a sinking feeling to the spying girl.

"Of course there would be pups boy. If you proved to be too much of a useless little shit to properly bed the girl, I had planned to do it myself. Ayame has just became old enough to bed without too many complications and the sooner she starts producing litters, the better." Scratching one of the many folds in his neck, Gorotsuki actually had the audacity to sound put upon.

At that moment, Kenami and Kouga were unknowingly joined together by more than their burgeoning love. They shared a moment of pure hate for the Ookami no Taisho Gorotsuki.

"Shimatta..." Stumbling away as though afraid of being infected with his sire's madness Kouga gave a shout of outrage that seemed to shake the air. "You can't do that to Ayame!!"

"I can do anything I want Kouga because I am the leader of both the pack and you. Now get your scrawny ass dressed and come back to the den!" Chopping the air with his hand, Gorotsuki growled right back. "You will take Ayame as a mate and that's final!"

Despite the powerful wave of jyaki emanating from the lord like the fouling breath of the dead, Kouga still stood his ground. "I'm not going anywhere with you Gorotsuki. I said that I chose a mate and I'll be damned if you-!"

The sickening sound of flesh caving beneath a brutal fist rang out, making Kenami fight the urge to tear the person hurting her Kouga into pieces! However, that same sense of overwhelming jyaki kept her immobile as it crawled over her flesh like invisible insects.

Watching as Kouga blocked another startlingly fast blow, Kenami clenched her hands in frustration. She wanted to pray for the faltering Kouga but she'd given that up long ago.

'You can fight this koi.' Pouring all of her newly realized love into that thought, Kenami struggled not to cry out at each hit that knocked the young man back.

'I know that you can fight him!' Gripping the trunk so hard that she feared it would snap, Kenami could barely see Kouga drag himself back to his feet through the blurry film of unshed tears.

Below, Gorotsuki circled his fallen son like the animal he was. "How dare you think you can talk to me like that you worthless bastard?! You have no power! You have no place in this world other than the one I choose to give you! How dare you think that you can go against my wishes?" A foot sent the unsteady boy crashing back to the ground.

"And for what?! All for some whore of an inu that flashed her tail across your nose and had you running back and forth all over the mountains searching for her?"

Powerful or not, Kenami wanted nothing more than to jump down and try her best to remove that pompous bully from the realm of the living. Kouga beat her to it.

"She's not just some inu!" Dodging the next kick, Kouga swept Gorstuski off his feet with a solid roundhouse and then landed a hard right to the exposed chin of his lord. As his sire fell, he scrambled back to the very edge of the underbrush where he crouched defensively.

"She is my mate!!"

Above him, ruby eyes twinkled invisibly in the twilight darkness of the canopy as Kenami saw Kouga draw back his shoulders and stare his father down. "The inu youkai Kenami is my mate." Brushing aside a handful of his hair, Kouga proudly displayed the reddened mark on his neck, drawing an angry hiss from the taiyoukai.

"I am hers."

Absently touching her neck, Kenami felt a curious prickle run under her questing fingers. Below her, the transformed youth continued to defiantly glare at his thunderous lord.

"That's right you old fuck. I'm mated so you can forget about your disgusting schemes for power! I have chosen someone of my own free will and she has accepted me as well."

Gorotsuki looked as though he was ready to explode. "Do you know what you've done?"

"I fell in love! The fact that I messed up your twisted little dreams in the process is simply an unexpected gift from the gods." No longer attempting to appease his sire, Kouga bared lengthening fangs in preparation to fight. "Especially since you know that as long as either of us draws breath, Kenami and I are joined only to each other. I will never take Ayame as my mate so you can just go to hell!."

Kenami had to physically restrain her tail before the wagging could betray her position. 'I knew you could stand up to him Kouga! I knew it!'

The ponderous lord wasn't quite as enraptured by the announcement.

"You have ruined the name of this pack by taking a dog for a mate Kouga!! Isn't it enough that we ookami have to survive on the leavings of that accursed Dog while he feasts in the West? Or how that bastard practically gave away the Southern provinces to that gaijin slut?!" The boulder beside Gorotsuki finally crumbled into dust.

"On this day, you have shamed me Kouga. Me and every wolf within these lands!"

"Shame? Shame?!" A roar of incredulous rage poured out of Kouga like an unstoppable tide. "I don't care one bit about your goddamned shame! Especially when I have to live with the shame of being your child!"

Gnashing his teeth as a flood of memories threatened to overwhelm him, Kouga rapidly blinked as he spoke. "According to you, I've been nothing but a burden and a disappointed since the first day I drew breath! Everything I've done is useless in your eyes so why should this be any different?" Managing to bring his rampaging emotions under control, Kouga took a shuddery breath.

"It doesn't matter anymore what either of us thinks about each other because I'm taking Kenami and leaving the Northern Lands." The instant the words left his mouth Kouga felt the utter rightness of them.

'I hadn't planned on going anywhere but I can't stay here any longer. If Kenami and I have even one pup, he'd kill it just to get back at me.'

"We'll leave tonight so you won't have to live with the shame of me being your son anymore."

A moment of tense silence met his words before the lord responded. "If that's what you think is best, then who am I to argue with you?" At the defeated tone, Kouga gave a start.

Still seated on the ground after the kick, Gorotsuki hung his head as he stared down at his empty hands. "Who am I to argue with you about what you do with your life boy?"

"What?" For a moment, Kouga thought that he might have somehow made his sire understand the hell he had put his only child through for so many years. "What did you say?"

Blood red orbs flared bright with a surge of jyaki and dashed any presumptions of mercy as Gorotsuki got to his feet. "I said, who the fuck am I to argue with you boy?!" Planting each foot solidly into the ground, the ookami taiyoukai held out his arm and sent a blast of youki directly at his gaping child. When the surge of sickly blue light shot forth, it divided into myriad shards that pinned Kouga to the tree even as it tore mercilessly across his skin.

Gorotsuki was beside himself with fury. "I am your father and your lord boy!! That is who I am and whether you like it or not, you will obey me because I am the God of your pathetic fucking world!"

Kouga couldn't hear the deranged ranting over the sound of his own screams. Caught completely off guard by the attack, Kouga hadn't been prepared for this new level of cruelty from Gorotsuki. The instant the youki knives tore into his skin and fried every nerve ending it jolted through, Kouga cried out so hard that his vocal cords were instantly paralyzed.

Even if he had been capable of speech despite the hellish assault, his mind was growing as unresponsive as his voice as it reeled beneath the intensifying strata of pain.

"AAARRGGGHHH!!!" Nearly blinded by the blood seeping from his eyes as he was slowly being flayed alive, Kouga missed the shadow that passed over his head as Kenami launched herself at Gorotsuki.

This time, the tortured howl from her mate broke the trance that had held Kenami immobile. With red flowing freely across her line of vision, she burst from the trees and slammed both fists deep into the face of the startled lord.

"Get the hell away from him!!"

Gorotsuki didn't get a second to retaliate before she landed on his back and sank tiny white daggers deeply into his shoulder. He couldn't even acknowledge that jagged presence before a pair of clawed hands tried to tear out his eyes!

Bellowing and flailing at his unseen attacker, the lord automatically yanked on the bushy appendage that brushed by his thigh.

There were days that Kenami regretted being born with a tail and today was one of them. She mentally cursed the inconvenient body part as she was sent crashing into a nearby tree. The trunk cracked audibly under to force of her impact and through the colorful splashes of pain playing behind her eyes, she snarled at the confused taiyoukai as she got to her feet.

"Leave him alone!!"

Staring dumbly for a moment, Gorotsuki tried to figure out who the hell this slip of a girl was! Beady black eyes took on a knowing look when they saw the apprehension written plainly across the haggard face of his half-conscious son.

"Ahh. So you're the whore."

"And you're the dickless wonder." The corpulent face darkened at the insult. "Now that all the introductions have been made, leave us in peace before I kill you." Never taking her eyes off of him, Kenami straightened and snarled coldly. "Now."

"Kenami?" Coughing up an alarming amount of blood, Kouga held onto the side of the tree and used it to keep himself from winding up flat on the ground. "You're not supposed to be here." The skin over his chest was just trying to heal but any repair was being impeded by remnant traces of crackling jyaki.

Watching to contest of wills between his mate and his sire, he prayed as he never had in his life. 'Kami, I will call him anything he wants me to. Just don't let him hurt her!'

"Get out of here now! I'll be fine, just go." Having regained a semblance of his former balance, Kouga kept his bruised face averted from Kenami as he wove his way to her side.

'Gods, I never wanted her to see me like this. I didn't want her to know about any of this!'

"Please Kenami. Leave!" Hoping that she would finally listen, Kouga all but begged. The sneer of disgust from his sire didn't affect him at all. He didn't want her to get injured and he could tell by the very way that Gorotsuki was looking at Kenami, that she would be very soon.

"Go!"

Even without scenting the blood in the air, Kenami knew that he was suffering from more than a few broken ribs simply by the way he moved. 'Oh beloved. Why didn't you let me stay?! Where you afraid that I would reject you if I knew?' When he finally made his way to her side, she shook her head vehemently.

"No. Mates don't leave each other and I'm not leaving you with him."

Gorotsuki chuckled unpleasantly, "Bitch, don't you get it yet? Neither of you has a fucking choice in the matter." Stalking slowly towards them with a fiendish gleam in his eyes, he continued to taunt his only son.

"I'll tell you what boy. If she's as good a fuck as she looks, I'll let you keep her when I'm done with her." Openly leering at Kenami, his lips twisted in a sneer. "But that might take a while."

Using his own battered form to shield as much of her body from that lecherous gaze as he could, Kouga realized that for the first time in years, he didn't feel the barest whisper of the fear that usually made him powerless against the monster that had ruled his life.

"Don't you come near her you old bastard! I will die before I let you touch her!" Still bleeding and barely able to stand under the rolling tide of agony from his chest, Kouga growled with a strength born from his heart. Every muscle in his body ached as he half-crouched to fight against his monstrous lord.

A lifeless voice from behind washed over him in chilling waves. "No koi. Let him come." A gentle touch was enough to turn him aside as Kenami swept past. "It's my body he desires then he shall have it."

"K-Kenami?" Watching her glide towards the object of his waking nightmares, Kouga couldn't help but appreciate the unconscious rolling of her hips. When he realized that the motion was becoming more pronounced with each step she took, he blinked in confusion.

'Is she…dancing!?"

Indeed, the closer she got to the bloated lord, the more Kenami's supple form swayed in unfamiliar but mildly erotic movements. From where he stood laboring for each breath, Kouga tried to figure out what was going on.

"Kenami?"

"Shh Kouga. This is the only way."

More agonizing than the youki blades that had ripped across Kouga's skin was the shame that tore at his heart when he heard that soft voice. His love, his mate was going to give herself away in order to save his miserable life? The triumphant gleam in the black eyes watching him was too much to take.

"No Kenami. You don't have to do this!'"

"It'll be over soon Kouga, I promise."

Despite the hesitant assurance, he fell to his knees and raged inside because all of the years of his father's scorn suddenly seemed true.

He was pathetic.

'I should have stopped him before today, but I just let him abuse me over and over again. I told myself that he was so much stronger to justify the fact that I did nothing to stop it form happening.'

Kenami danced closer to the waiting lord and the stone-still Kouga watched her do it.

He was a waste of time.

'Who am I kidding? It's only been two days. There was no way that she could actually love me in so short a time. Who would want someone as useless as me anyway? I am a complete fool.'

A sway and a light step swept the pale hair around her like a cloud of silk. Kouga tucked the sight away since he feared he would never see that graceful vision again.

He was weak.

'She needs more than my worthless love. Kenami needs someone who can protect her. How can I call myself her mate if I can't even protect myself?!' Seeing the grim satisfaction playing over his lord's face, Kouga felt violently ill.

As if sensing his tortured thoughts, Kenami twirled gracefully before continuing forward. In the brief instant that she had faced him, Kouga saw her eyes shining as they landed on him. Her smiling lips parted and mouthed the words 'I love you'.

That simple act blew his doubts away.

He was not pathetic.

'I have her.' Climbing back to his feet, he shuffled forward to stop Kenami before Gorotsuki could touch her.

He was not a waste of time.

'I have her.' Re-opened by the movement, the barely healed scabs across his chest split apart and drained jyaki-laden pus and blood but Kouga was beyond noticing.

He was not pathetic.

'I have her!' Flooded with new strength, his feet still were not swift enough to reach his mate before she was standing right before his sire.

Still undulating like a snake, Kenami paused just short of the taiyoukai's reach before giving him with an enigmatic smile.

"So, do you really want my body that badly?" Angling one hip forward as she traced an invisible line from her shoulder to the swell of her breast, she watched in disgust as Gorotsuki all but slathered at the sight.

Bending down, he laughed greedily, "Oh yeah. Every lovely little fucking inch of it."

"Then it's all yours asshole!" Arching her back sharply so that her hands touched the grass, she gave it to him foot first.

Kouga felt a smile tug at his lips when he saw his woman knock the shit out of the lord!

"I will not let you touch me!!" Those simple words didn't jolt the fat lord's spine nearly as much as the lighting fast heel kick to the head that sent him sailing out over the water. Flipping twice before landing easily back on her feet, Kenami made a rude gesture then turned to look at her mate's stunned face.

"I told you it would be alright koi." Walking towards him, she helped steady him and gave a giggle when his lips swooped down for a kiss.

"Shit, why didn't you tell me you were going to do that?" In truth, Kouga had almost missed the action himself. 'A kick that strong from where she was standing in unbelievable. How the hell does she move that fast?' Purring against his mouth, Kenami just grinned shyly.

"I wanted to surprise you?"

Anything Kouga might have said was lost beneath the boom that came from the center of the river. Breaking the surface and sputtering furiously, Lord Gorotsuki clawed his way through the water as he headed straight for them.

"Forget giving you to the dead man I used to call my son! I'm feeding your ass to Yami."

A surge of water accompanied his leap onto the bank as Gorotsuki blindly barreled head-first towards the waiting girl. Kouga recognized that the look in his father's eyes promised something slow and horrific for Kenami and he'd be damned if it was going to happen!

"Move!"

He shoved her to the side seconds before he himself took the full force of the impact meant to cripple Kenami. Kouga knew that maiming was his lord's intentions because right after the beefy shoulder rammed into his raw chest, Kouga felt powerful claws hook and rend the abused flesh across his middle.

From the place where she'd been knocked on the ground, Kenami could only scream as Kouga's intestines spilled out in a steaming flood across the grass. "NOOOO!!!!"

Realizing his mistake, Gorotsuki staggered back to stare down at his fallen son. "I-I didn't mean…" Coming back to himself, his expression hardened into a mask of contempt. "It's you own fault you little shit! You shouldn't have disobeyed me Kouga!! You should have done what you were told!" When Kenami scrambled over to the fallen youth, his contemptuous snarl expanded to include her as well.

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't come here and tampered with my boy!! It's your fault!"

Cradling her lover's head in her lap, Kenami shrieked at him, "Don't just stand there looking like a dumbass! Get Hoken!"

"Don't talk to me like that! I'm the lord of the Northern Lands!"

"You're a fucking monster!"

Managing a weak smile as he felt himself growing curiously cold, Kouga cupped her cheek with a bloody hand, instantly gaining her attention. "I'm glad that I could protect you koibito. I was afraid…that I wasn't worthy of being your mate." Still wearing that fragile smile, his eyelids fluttered as they closed. Kenami's world began to fall apart.

"Kouga, you cannot die like this!" Shaking Kouga's shoulder, she wept when those beautiful blue orbs remained hidden away. "I won't let you!"

A derisive sneer shot through the air. "Don't worry. When he's dead, I'll take you for a mate. After all, a good lord always provides." Grabbing her by the scruff of the neck, Gorotsuki started to drag the struggling girl away.

"Leave him to die in peace. Even strong youkai can't hope to survive that."

"Let me go!" Tearing at the fingers wrapped around her throat, Kenami kicked and bucked in an attempt to get away. A hard shake by the lord had her seeing stars.

"You had better take this opportunity to learn how shut up and do as you're told bitch! If you do, I might let you keep that pretty little head of yours."

Drawing the disoriented girl towards his face for a brutal kiss, Gorotsuki drawled cruelly, "But then again, I might not."

Through the fog gathering in front of her eyes, Kenami discreetly pulled one hand towards the side of her chest. Digging into the soft flesh under her arm, she pried a hard figurine out of her own body and clenched it tightly in her fist.

Scenting the blood, the taiyoukai looked down trying to identify the source. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Seeing the copious amounts of blood flowing down her arm, he mistook the significance of it. "Committing suicide to die by your beloved sweetheart's side? You're as useless as Kouga was."

Throwing her to the ground, he kicked her to keep her there. Reeling under the blow, Kenami heard the rustling of fur as Gorotsuki began to remove his clothing. The blood coursing sluggishly within her veins turned to ice when she felt a bloated hand grasp her hips.

"I guess I'll have to take what I want before you get too cold."

Adrenaline surged through Kenami at that loathsome touch and gave her the burst of strength needed to knock the smirking lord away.

"Not a chance in hell." Shooting over the ground, Kenami draw back the hand holding the stone figure and shoved it down Gorotsuki's laughing throat.

}

"I'm just sorry that I'm not strong enough to use fetish spirits as well as my mother. She could have blown that old bastard apart instead of just knocking him out." Slipping back into bed beside the sleeping little girl, Kenami smiled sadly.

'I should have never left you Kouga. I should have stayed.'

}

Hoken was planning a murder even as he raced to save Kouga's life. Sopping up the seemingly endless amounts of blood and jyaki-tainted pus, he growled louder and louder with each crimson rag he tossed aside.

"When this boy is back on his feet, I swear to God that I will kill Gorotsuki!" Pressing together a length of intestine and using his own youki to knit it, the healer was nearly shouting.

"This is the last fucking straw!"

If Hoken was the picture of rage incarnate, Kenami was the avenging lover. Growling deeply within her throat, she kept her eyes glued to the young man before her.

"You can have him when I'm done with him. Not a moment before that." Passing the mousy man another bundle of clean bandages that were quickly dyed crimson, she replaced the damp rag on Kouga's fevered brow with another one.

"Why do you want to kill that sack of shit anyway? I thought you and Kouga didn't really get along."

The hands flying over the prone didn't even pause. "I like Kouga just fine. I may not agree with his impulsiveness and absolute hard headed refusal to listen to good advice, but I do like the kid." Smearing a harsh-smelling unguent on his hands, the ookami healer rubbed it over a cluster of leaking boils. The bubbled mounds began to shrivel and reform as healthy skin at the touch.

"Besides, how could I not like my own nephew?"

"Nephew?!" Taking in the appearance of the slight man and comparing it with Kouga, Kenami was at a momentary loss for words. Instead, she changed the rag again and passed over more bandages as she cleared away the soiled ones.

After using the Bas'ti fetish to blast Gorotsuki into the upper atmosphere, she'd carefully picked up Kouga and brought him to the burrow. It was sheer luck that Hoken had dropped by to check up on her. Now he found himself saddled with another patient altogether.

"Yes, Kouga's mother was my little sister." Rearranging the coiled and bloodied lengths of intestines so that they would go back into their proper places within the ashen youth, Hoken used small bursts youki to encouraged the ragged strips of skin to stretch and hold them into place.

Kenami cocked her head. "So that would make Kouga part of the Golden wolf tribe, wouldn't it?" Cleaning away stray spots of blood from her lover's skin, she focused on the conversation in order to keep herself from weeping helplessly. "Why doesn't he call you uncle? All I ever heard him call you was 'old man' or your name."

At the softly asked question, the healer did pause. Resuming his ministrations quickly, his voice held and odd note. "Because he doesn't know that I'm related to him." Still encouraging the flesh to heal properly, Hoken gave a gusty sigh but wouldn't meet her curious gaze.

"Kouga is a part of the Golden wolves but it's a poor inheritance to say the least. There are only a handful of us scattered throughout all of Yamato. Miyage and I were the only children our lord had before he died, but she was the loveliest girl in all of the tribe." the somber voice grew wistful with the recollection of the departed sibling.

"For a while, it looked as though our tiny pack would be settled in the East with Lord Enjuku, but then she met Gorotsuki and came with him to the North." Balling his hand into a fist, Hoken drove it into the floor. "I begged her not to go but she said that I was simply being cruel. That I was wrong for not liking her mate and questioning her decisions. We had a fight and she told me never to come near her or her family again."

Fog-gray eyes filled with pain and guilt fell on the face of the pale youth. "Proud fool that I was, I listened and she died." Pressing his lips into thin line, Hoken returned to the task of saving the last of his family.

Kenami couldn't stop the tears that slipped down her cheeks as she watched the man who had already lost someone he loved to the bastard that had tried to take her mate. "But how did she die?"

"Protecting her son from the monster she married." Thin fingers settled over the mended body as Hoken took a weary breath. "Gorotsuki snapped her neck right before Kouga's eyes. After seeing something as traumatic as that, it was no surprise that the lord had to send for a healer to bring his catatonic son back from within himself."

A rueful grin ghosted across Hoken's lips. "I just happened to be the best youkai healer in the land so I was the one that twisted psycho sent for. The first time I ever laid eyes on my nephew was the day I witnessed the burial of my baby sister."

Pressing a horrified hand to her throat, Kenami's heart went out to both of the men who'd been variously wounded by the ookami lord Gorotsuki.

"Didn't he know you were Miyage's brother?"

"No. I was tending to a pack of foreign youkai in the south when my sister took Gorotsuki as her mate." The grin turned feral.

"Otherwise, I would have had time to give him a healthy dollop of poison."

The display of defiance gladdened Kenami because it reminded her so much of Kouga's earlier display when he'd stood up to his father. 'This is how they're related. That drive in their blood to never give up is what connects them as a family.' Lost in her idle thoughts, she almost missed Hoken's request.

"What?"

Sighing at the fallacies of youth, the healer gave her a warm but exhausted smile. "I said, can you go to the home of a friend of mine and get something from her?"

Flushing a bit, Kenami bobbed her head.

"Good. Go to the waterfall at the base of the mountain and follow it past three more. At the fourth one is a large house near the water's edge. A man named Tian-Shin or a woman name Shinaki should be there. You can't miss them because they're both as blue as the sky."

Blinking at the image conjured in her mind, Kenami frowned. "What do you want me to ask for when I get there?"

"Tell them Hoken sent you and they'll know immediately what you need." Seeing the apprehension on her face as she looked at the prone Kouga, his voice softened. "Kouga will be fine Kenami. I just need that elixir to help restore his energy so that he can heal himself the rest of the way."

Brushing her fingers over the feathery-soft hair of those dark brows, she pressed a tender kiss to the corner of Kouga's lips. "Are you sure that I can't stay?"

"I'm sorry dear, but I urgently need that medicine."

"Okay." Nodding her head, Kenami laid her hand against her beloved's face. "I'll be right back koibito. I promise that I'll be back before you know it." Turning to face Hoken, she mustered a watery smile and got to her feet. "I'm ready."

Grasping her hand briefly, the healer stood and walked with her to the entrance. "I promise you that he will be fine." In a move that surprised and touched her, Hoken gave her a hug. "After all, I can't make my new niece cry, now can I?"

Returning the impromptu embrace, Kenami nodded her head. Placing a quick peck on the sallow cheek, she turned and raced out into the night.

}

Closing her eyes against the unbidden tears, Kenami wrapped her arms around the girl laying before her and wished that she could do the same for the hurt little boy that Kouga must have been.

'You have suffered so much in your life koibito. Please forgive me for being the one to add onto it.'

}

Following Hoken's directions, she found the house easily and was indeed greeted by a very blue couple. After delivering the message, Kenami had been on her way back to the burrow with a tiny bottle tucked securely into her kimono.

She never made it.

A sudden pain caught her from behind and as the unstoppable darkness washed over her, she heard the voice of her attacker whisper into her ear.

"Lord Gorotsuki sends his greetings. Don't worry about the whelp. I'll make sure he gets the medicine and the message about your disappearance."

Ungentle hands grasped her arms and as they dragged her away, Kenami heard Tsuki laugh loudly.

"I told you I'd return the favor bitch."

}

Unable to sleep, Kenami tried to block out the memories of the last 25 years of her life instead.

When she'd woken up in nothing but chains, a chalky man with hollow eyes had greeted her with an impassive smile and the news that she was now his property.

That had been the start of her life as the slave of the man she knew only as Spider. All attempts to escape him had failed since his palace seemed to exist outside of reality and he hadn't taken Kenami outside of it until she'd been properly broken in by a demoness name Kagura.

That had taken ten, long and bitter years.

Pressing a hand across her eyes, Kenami wept silently. After that, she had only been released in order to be a 'gift' or 'trinket' for whatever lord or noble that Spider had wanted to garner a favor from. Some had been kind to her, but more often than not they had surpassed Enjuku in the realms of cruelty and sadism.

Curling round the fragile body before her, Kenami wept for the fifteen years that Gorotsuki had sentenced her to be exactly what he'd told Kouga she was.

A whore.

}

}

}

}

The spotlight returns and highlights a rather plump young woman sitting in an over-stuffed chair sipping a large cup of tea. She has a curly head of black hair that swirls around her face creating an odd pixie impression when coupled with tilted eyes of deep brown. Setting the cup aside, she folds chocolate-colored hands across her lap and smiles.

"Okay, okay, I know. I got through "Silver-Haired Beauty" without a lemon, I got through "A Brother's Love" with a mildly yaoi lime and "She Will Be Loved" has no citrus twang at all, so why did I go totally Harlequin/Silhouette in the last chapter of this story?" Rounded shoulders bob in a shrug.

"I haven't got a friggin' clue! I just started out writing that little back story for Kouga and Kenami and before I knew it, BAM! Both of them were getting hot and heavy in the middle of the water."

Ruffling the spiky curls with one hand, the author gives another apologetic smile. "If it seems a little OOC for Kouga-kun, well so is having an asshole for a father. Besides, any rabid Kouga fan girl knows that he's really expressive with his feelings when it comes to women." Leaning back into the chair, the young woman gives a slight smile.

"For those of you who are wondering why Kenami was the one who experienced the physical aftermath of getting bitten by Kouga when I clearly stated that Kuroi remembered being marked by him, good eye for detail but I didn't make a mistake."

The slight smile becomes more secretive as it spreads across Mistress Bakani Banana's face before it's hidden by the rim of the tea cup. Giving a sigh of pleasure as she takes another sip of her favorite black cherry tea, she closes her eyes.

"That is part of the story and you'll just have to wait to find out how it resolves." The tilted eyes snap open beneath a furrowed brow. "No, they are not twins!! Heaven help me, I am so tired of that angle in a story I could scream! Kenami and Kuroi's memories are an integral part of this whole convoluted mess though."

Giving a sigh of mild annoyance as she rolls her eyes, the writer makes a small grimace. "At least that part of the story is going my way. Look, let me level with you. I am only writing this stuff as I get it. The characters are going wherever the hell they feel like and giving me a ton of flack if I say 'No'." Bakani Banana blinks in surprise at the tangible wave of disbelief coming from the reader.

"What, you don't believe me? I'm not kidding! Kuroi and Inuyasha haven't stopped fighting since the end of Chapter Fourteen! I haven't figured out if Midori is really in danger from her pregnancy or just hormonal and my landlord is looking at me funny because Niambi's fetishes blew a hole in the wall! They're all crazy, all of them!!"

"Are you talking about us again Bakani?" A young woman dressed in a short blue kimono steps up and pulls a chair out of nowhere. "We're not that bad are we?"

"Hell yes you are Kuroi! If I wanted to deal with people who ignored every idea I had, I'd drop this story and use that writing hour to sit with my kids. " Huffing sourly as she crosses her arms, Bakani Banana glared at the other girl. "Toddlers are better than my cat for ignoring people and orders."

"Aw come on Bakani, don't be so mean!" Pouting a bit, Kuroi gives a hopeful little grin. "We thought your original plot was really good but we wanted to try a few things out on our own…" Looking mildly guilty, Kuroi twiddled her fingers and tries her best to ignore the flames shooting up from the seated figure.

"A few things on your own?!" Jabbing a finger in the reader's direction, it looks as though Bakani Banana has finally flipped. "Sessy went nuts and started torturing people, you're not human looking anymore and Rin wandered into the story out of nowhere. Absolutely freaking nowhere!"

Grabbing the sides of her head in frustration, Bakani Banana continues to yell. "How do you expect me to fit an 8 year-old child into the plot?! What the hell else are you guys going to do to my story?!" Fully screaming by this time, any previous demeanor of civility and calm has flown right out the window and the irate woman doesn't seem to notice.

"Come on, tell me! What will you guys do next, huh? Naraku gets a facelift and guest stars on Nip/Tuck? Ooh, or maybe Yamatsu will create a harem and start with Midori's sisters just until the war is over and then he'll get to expand the roster? Speaking of which, who said you could start a war?" Arms flailing wildly at her sides, Bakani Banana has gone completely off the deep end and Kuroi looks around for reinforcements.

"We're sorry?" Trying to calm her creator down some, the young woman piped up helpfully, "But we did give your apology in the last chapter."

One dark eye twitches uncontrollably as Bakani Banana takes her seat again. Steepling her fingers in front of her, she levels a cool gaze at the smiling girl. "Oh yes. The 'apology' from the last chapter." Leaning forward, Bakani Banana gives Kuroi a humorless smile.

"Tell me Kuroi, did any of you happen to explain that I didn't faint, I was just exhausted from scrubbing down my entire house because one of my kid's classmates infected her with head lice, or did Inu run off at the mouth again and make me look like a prudish old maid?"

Scratching the back of her head guiltily, Kuroi gave a short laugh. "Um, the second one." The laughter died under the hostile glare. "I take it that you're mad?"

"Actually no I'm not." Picking her tea back up, Bakani Banana offered a cup to Kuroi, who accepted it with a trace of surprise. "I like the story so far and despite the fact that I had already made carefully outlined notes for the original plot line, I will accept this new direction and let the bunch of you wander where you will."

"Seriously?" Completely delighted, Kuroi takes a sip of her tea.

"Oh yes. You see, Naraku and I had a nice chat." That humorless smile was back.

Glancing down at her half empty cup, Kuroi gulps loudly and sets it aside with a touch of dread. "You did?"

"Oh yes. He told me that since he, Inu and the rest of the Takahashi gang aren't my characters, I technically have no control over how they might act despite the fact that I'm borrowing them for this story." Standing up and walking a short distance away in order to pace slowly, Bakani gives an evil giggle. "However you, Kenami, Anbu and the rest are my creations. I do control you."

Feeling more than a little nervous under the intense gaze, Kuroi sinks lower into the chair before smiling nervously, "Heh-heh. I thought you were going to let us wander?

"Don't worry my dear, I most certainly will. That much hasn't changed in the slightest." Breaking the line of sight, Bakani Banana turns and walks towards the exit.

"But remember this Kuroi-chan. If you wander into a danger that is beyond your capabilities to handle, don't expect me to write you out of it."

The sound of a closing door rings out across the room with a hint of finality. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kuroi cradles her head in one hand.

"I think I'm going to have to watch where I put my feet from now on."