InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Where He Belongs ❯ The Challenge ( Chapter 17 )

I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA!

A/N: Thank you so much for your amazing feedback!

Chapter 17- The Challenge

Koga woke the next morning warm and content. Flexing his arms, the events of the previous day immediately came back to him as he realized the solid, warm body he spooned against was his Inuyasha.

Yes, his Inuyasha. The pup was finally his mate. Before the very moment he had asked Inuyasha to be his, he never fully realized how much the hanyou had come to mean to him. Before he had gone missing, the ookami did not see how completely the inu had integrated into his life and how incomplete he was without his mutt.

So, last night, they had mated. Koga had made him his, and in return he had offered himself up to Inuyasha.

It was with regret that he unwrapped himself from around the inu, untangled their limbs, and rolled off of the furs. He smiled lovingly down at his puppy when he whimpered in his sleep with the loss of the warmth of his alpha and snuggled deeper within the furs.

Slowly dressing in his fur and armor, he was glad that his inu was home. He looked just right here; wrapped in the furs of his bed, naked and pink, available for his new alpha to return and love him thoroughly. At the moment however, Koga was happy he was here for an altogether different reason. With him here, he would not have to worry about his cubs. He would need to have all of them safe and separate from the tribe, for he needed his attention to be focused entirely on what he was about to do.

He looked back one last time as he moved the hide blocking the entrance to their chambers to the side.

He was going to set his tribe straight once and for all. He was not only doing this for Inuyasha but for himself.

He had let his wolves go undisciplined for far too long. He had always had a light hand in the running of the tribe. His father had run things the same way. It seemed, however, that since Koga had always been like that, that his tribesmen thought he knew no other way. Until now, he had never had a reason to assert his authority over them, and they had apparently understood it as a lack of dominion.

True, he had never put his foot down over anything, believing that for the most part people were capable of ruling themselves perfectly well. His people did not need him to dictate everything they did, and so, he led when he had to but otherwise left them to handle things. That did not mean he was incapable.

It was time to show all of them just that.

Though it was still early, the men and women of his tribe were up and preparing for the day. He looked down on his people from his place standing at the top of the rock shelf that led to his chambers, high above them. Slowly he loosed his youki. Tendrils of the youki wafted out into the Den, curling around his people, stained with his displeasure and pushed by the force of his dominance.

One by one the men and women below were touched by the chilling feel of his discontentment and rose to look up at him. Within minutes, the people of his tribe stood as one, gazing at him. They felt his anger and dissatisfaction with them. They stilled their hands of activity. Mothers grabbed their rambunctious cubs, all wolf beasts and wolf youkai giving their Alpha their whole attention.

Once all attention was on him, he growled low in anger. The sound rose in volume until even the wolves furthest from the Alpha felt the depth of his fury.

“I have claimed the Inu hanyou Inuyasha as my mate and Beta Consort,” he announced with a strong growl.

He paused to let the exclamations of the wolves settle before continuing. He noted the various reactions and who they belonged to. Most of his old tribe, that had known the hanyou in the times of Naraku, looked unsurprised and fairly accepting of the addition to their clans. Others looked confused. Koga understood that; he had skipped right over all of the traditional avenues that an Alpha usually took when acquiring a mate. He had done all of that with his previous mate, Ayame, and felt no need to go through the hoops that the Council of Elders would come up with again. It was the last group; the group that blatantly threw him looks of revulsion, betrayal, and mutiny that he concentrated on.

“Who dared order my mate to be hunted down and killed?” he said in a deadly voice. Most of his wolves stilled in shock. Someone had done such a wicked thing? Who would be so bold? One group, however, continued to look at him with barely restrained rebellion.

The Alpha jumped down from the rock shelf, landing with loud crash on the rock floor, signaling he had his youki active, making him stronger, heavier, and more powerful. Slowly he walked toward the defiant group of wolves. They maintained eye contact with him the entire way, challenging him in the primal way of canines.

Approaching the group, he let a surge of his youki hit them. Some of them stumbled under the blast of power and lowered their eyes to the ground, hunching over and lowering themselves closer to the ground in submission. They backed away, leaving the few remaining obstinate wolves in the forefront.

Koga continued to stare them down, taking no notice of the ones who backed away. He ignored the troublesome Elder among them who backed away in contrite submission but never turned his malevolent eyes away from the Wolf Chief.

“Who here was stupid enough and gutless enough to sneak attack a member of my House?” Koga snarled at them. No one stepped forward to confess to the deed. “Are we a tribe of cowards now? Do we wolves attack the innocent when we have issues with those in power?”

Koga stared each of the hate filled wolves in the eye. There were about ten of them who stared back, abhorrence and insolence swirling in their depths. Koga only nodded, knowing what he had to do.

“You attack my family then you have declared yourself my enemy. I hereby issue Challenge!” Koga shouted, so all could hear him.

The wolves' quite witness exploded into shocked murmuring and empathetic howls that called for the blood of the tribes enemies. The Alpha had issued a challenge to those that would oppose him. They had never seen Chief Koga like this. They had never seen him truly dominant. True, he had always been a leader, leading hunting and attack parties with ease, and dictating jobs when he was called to, but they had never seen him come down on his people.

With this challenge, he would be exerting the ultimate power of his authority. Those who answered the challenge would be openly opposing and fighting the Alpha. If they lost, the Wolf Chief would have the right to cast them out of the tribe entirely. On the other hand, if Koga lost, he would be dethroned as the Alpha, he and his family becoming the new Omega family, the lowest position of the tribe.

It was the general consensus, however, that to challenge the current Alpha would be the height of foolishness. Koga's reputation as the top in speed, stamina, and endurance was well known. Those who had been by the Wolf Chief's side since the days of the dastardly Naraku knew he had a special power, Goraishi. Given by their ancestors, it had remained unused in their time of peace and had fallen out of knowledge to those who had not been there to witness the power themselves. Woe to those who make themselves a danger to the clans, for they would not survive the fight.

By the time the gathered wolves had quieted down, four wolves stood defiant and threatening before the Alpha. The watching wolves formed a circle around them.

Koga lifted his chin in challenge, accepting the claims of his opponents. Without losing eye contact the Wolf Chief and the first challenger stripped themselves of their clothing and protections. This would be a fight of raw strength. There would be no assistance from outside factors, such as swords or armors; just a clash of strength against strength, power against power, will against will.

With both fighters naked and ready, they lunged at each other for the first attack.

IKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKI

Inuyasha awoke with a start. He had been deep asleep, dreaming wonderful dreams of his mate that had left him hard and aching. He could not believe such a thing could even be expressed by his mind; his mate. He had a mate! Someone who loved him so much they had made it permanent! He rolled in the furs and stretched languidly, pleasure thrumming through every nerve in his body.

His bubble of nuptial bliss was burst at the sudden sounds coming from the wall across the room.

“Yaaasssaaa!” a young voice sang.

Another voice let out a whimpering howl.

“Yaaaaaassaaaaaa!” the first voice repeated good-naturedly.

Inuyasha huffed, a sound that conveyed both his annoyance at having been woken up and amusement at the antics of his silly pups.

“Just a minute, you brats!” Inuyasha barked. He steadily ignored the muffled giggles emerging from behind the hide covering the opening to the cub alcove, and found his hakama and hitoe.

Once properly covered he trudged over to the niche in the wall that held the formerly sleeping cubs. Flinging the hide aside, he was immediately pounced upon by three energetic cubs.

“Oomph! Hell!” Inuyasha exclaimed as they climbed over him.

Squirt quickly scrambled up his shoulder and perched himself on the inu's head, taking a tight grip on the silky white hair. Kingo climbed dexterously around him, his claws digging into the fire-rat fabric to situate his self on the hanyou's back, and reminding the inu more of a Saru youkai than any ookami he had ever come across. The young cub snuffled as he swatted his Yassa's thick hair out of his face. Kozue simply glomped onto his neck, burying her face in the soft skin she found there. Inuyasha smirked at the remaining cub. Kaishi sat patiently with raised arms, waiting for the inu to pick him up.

Inuyasha reached for the quiet cub. They all stilled, however, at the sudden sound of a roar that reverberated through the cave chambers. Inuyasha quickly grabbed the cub up and swung him into his arms.

“You guys be quiet, you hear me? And hold on tight too, in case I gotta move fast,” Inuyasha warned the cubs as he padded out of their rooms to investigate.

Exiting their chambers, Inuyasha stood on the rock shelf that had only just moments ago been the spot where Koga had stood looking down at his tribe. His eyes widened in shock and confusion at what he saw. The wolves were attacking Koga! It seemed like all of the wolves of the tribe were gathered to watch the attack, goading them on and trapping them inside a circle of bodies. His mate stood in the middle with another, naked except for the blood that had been shed for both wolves. What was going on?

“Koga!” he whimpered in anguish.

Inuyasha knew one thing; he was not going to let them hurt his new mate. He made to descend the rock face, only to halt when he felt a presence behind him. He turned quickly to see who it was, and settled a hand on the scruffy tawny colored hair of Squirt who squeaked at the sudden movement.

“Come Little One, do you think you are going into battle with the cubs at your shoulders?” the craggy voice of Elder Choshi-sama asked.

“Choshi-baba! They're trying to kill Koga! Take the cubs for me!” Inuyasha exclaimed to the blind youkai.

“Take another look, Little One. Does it look like he is in any danger?” she asked, settling a knobby hand on his shoulder.

Inuyasha turned back and looked down at the scene below again. Now that he actually looked, he could see that Koga was handling himself just fine. Where he had been convinced he saw a number of wolves attacking, he now saw that only a couple looked hostile towards the Alpha wolf and only one of them were attacking at a time. To the side he could see two wolves that had obviously already fought the Alpha and were recovering from their resultant injuries. As he watched, Koga slammed his clawed hand through the chest cavity of the wolf he was fighting and flung the body aside, pausing only to snarl at the next opponent.

Inuyasha raised worried and confused eyes to the old woman.

“What the fuck is going on, old lady?”

“Our Alpha issued Challenge to those who would oppose him. He is asserting his authority over his wolves,” she explained in a quiet and patient voice, “Come Little One. Walk this old woman back to her chambers and we will sit for tea, hmm? There is no need for the young cubs to see such things.”

Inuyasha knew that even if Koga had needed his help, he would not be able to do anything while he had the cubs with him. With a last reluctant glance back at his mate, he ushered the Elder back to her rooms.

IKIKIKIKIKIKIKIKI

Michinaga watched the wolves of his tribe disperse from the area with barely restrained rage. That weak dog had actually mated with the abominable hanyou!

He looked down at the body of one of the challengers. It had been a spectacular fight, leaving one wolf dead and three others banished from the territories. That was, if they survived their injuries. The Elder had not foreseen that. The Alpha had always been weak willed and ineffectual, he figured that he would be weak in strength as well.

It must be more of the hanyou's magic. Michinaga sneered inwardly, searching the crowd. Just as he thought, the hanyou had not even bothered to show up. Why would he? He had complete control of the tribe now, through the concurring of the Alpha.

Still, if that was the case, he was surprised he had survived this day. Surely the hanyou had ordered his death for sending him away from the territory? Unless he was so stupid, he did not fully register the extent of how he had been so masterfully manipulated by the Elder. That was probably it. He may have been sly enough to magic the dimwitted Alpha without resistance, but he was nothing against the shear cunning and intelligence that Michinaga embodied.

It did not matter, however. Michinaga conceded defeat. The hanyou had won the tribe by working himself fully into the life of the Alpha and had obviously embedded his magic so completely into the Wolf Chief's mind that there would be no fixing him.

The Elder would have to come up with a plan to save his people from a future of the hanyou's atrocities.

A/N: So I know many of you are going to be completely unsatisfied that the bad guy did not get what was coming to him. Michinaga still has some use to this story, as I'm sure you can guess by the ending, so I couldn't get rid of him so easily. That, and Inuyasha still doesn't find anything wrong with his reasoning, and so does not see him as having driven him out, so he won't feel a need to mention his involvement to Koga. Hope you liked it anyway.

So what did you think about this chapter? Was it too much? I thought it might be when I was writing it, but I thought something had to be done; otherwise Koga was not being such a good alpha. It was really hard to write for some reason and I'm afraid that shows in the end product, thus this is not my favorite chapter.