Instinct

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Instinct: Nine Tenths of the Law
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Dogs weren’t wolves. He’d always been annoyed by the wolves’ domesticated cousins, and he knew that the annoyance was shared by his demon and animal brethren. It had never bothered him to the point of figuring out exactly why, but there had to be a reason.

Maybe it was the scent. Something about dog-scent made him think about humans chopping down the forest for fields and homes, as if human touch stripped the wildness from a dog like a human village tamed the area around itself. Human attempts to conquer the wild inspired nothing but contempt in him, and that bled over onto dogs in general. Or maybe it was the vapid way dogs responded to the humans. Even the most docile wolf regarded training as optional, but dogs clung to commands. While wolves obeyed out of love and duty, dogs just…obeyed. He had heard of wolves following humans occasionally, but their loyalty wasn’t the slavish bond dogs seemed to chain themselves with. Abuse a wolf, and he’d fight back. Abuse a dog, and he’d come cringing back for more. The lack of dignity was disgusting.

There were exceptions on both sides, of course, but it was the majority that he dealt with. Their smell annoyed him, their actions disgusted him, and the fact that they were undeniably related to him in some way was an embarrassment. Yet they were related. Leeched of wildness and overlaid with village stench, but the basic scent remained that of kin. He’d never gotten past that point to think about dogs from another direction: yes, they had a whole slew of domesticated traits that irritated him, but they also shared traits with wolves.

Like possessiveness. Once a wolf marked something as his--territory, mate, or prey--it would take prying his cold, dead jaws off it to make him relinquish his grip. Wolves were often remarkably stubborn like that. And while it was beyond him why a human would want to own a dog, he understood that it was probably as close as the filthy villagers could get to being claimed as a wolf’s own.

In dog terms, that was called loyalty, and it tended to show up despite humans’ training. Wolves straightforwardly called it possessiveness, and anyone stupid enough to try training a wolf wasn’t worth belonging to one. Why would anyone want to deter a friend, guide, protector, and provider was yet another thing he didn’t understand about humans. Training? Bah.

Then again, there were times he could wish Kagome had trained her doggy more…

*Or is Inuyasha just that untrainable?* Kouga sourly turned the idea over in his mind. *You’d think Kagome could have hammered some obedience into the dumb dog with her “sit” spell, but noooo. I get stuck with the one dog in existence that doesn’t roll over and woof on command.* He directed an evil sidelong glare at the cause of his internal ranting. If the white-haired demon sitting in the tree noticed, there was no sign of it. *A human-dog halfbreed. Gods above, why the heck does he revert to a wolf’s instincts?!*

Unless, of course, the rut or demon blood had bypassed all of Inuyasha’s civilized aspects and thrown him back into the wilds with his wolf cousins, where a dog’s instincts originated. That would make sense. Too much sense. Kouga found it easier to gripe about dogs and humans in general than think reasonably about this dog-human in particular.

So he did anyway. Damn his innate honesty. Wolf instincts could be a pain in the--*Arrrgh. I swear, my brain is mocking me.*

Stripped of human training and a dog’s loyalty, Inuyasha had claimed the wolf as his own with a fierceness that Kouga would have expected of a pack leader and mate, not a temporary outlet for rutting. He had reluctantly submitted to the halfbreed and been caught by surprise at the strength of the dog demon’s response. A wolf’s possessiveness, indeed.

Kouga cleared his throat and lifted his chin from folded arms without turning to look directly at the white dog. “Will you attack me if I get out now?” he asked with pointed exasperation.

Inuyasha’s ears perked in his direction while the rest of the rutting demon remained slouched comfortably in the fork of the tree. Red eyes slitted open to look at him, then closed again. “Yes.”

The word was guttural and hard to understand, but it wasn’t a snarl or growl. That was an improvement of sorts, right? The question had been repeated some five times by now, but he wasn’t about to get out of the water without asking. He had several healing fist-shaped bruises from the last time he’d tried to get out, and all he could say about that was at least the mutt hadn’t used his claws. The first time Kouga had started to climb out onto the river bank, the white demon had charged without any warning and stood snarling in the shallows before disappearing back into the forest. After waiting for a while, the wolf had tried again and had actually been out of the water and jogging back toward the clearing when Inuyasha had appeared out of nowhere to drive him back to the river with hard cuffs to his head and shoulders. Unwilling to start another fight, the wolf had fled before him and dove into the water.

That had been some time ago. The sun was high overhead, and he was beginning to get hungry after the, ah, activity from this morning. He sank down into the water until only narrow blue eyes and pointed ears showed, tangled black hair floating around him like tentacles on a waterlogged monster. Baring his teeth safely out of sight underwater, he glared over the bank at the dog in the tree. *Where the hell did his urge to sleep in trees come from, anyway? That’s no wolf or dog trait. Maybe he’s a birdbrain instead of shit-for-brains.*

He turned to swim across to the other side of the small river, lips sliding down over his teeth, and a few tiny air bubbles lodged against his gums. He absently sought them out with his tongue, eventually sneezing as the weird bubbly sensation tickled up into his nose. Unfortunately, he was in the deepest part of the river at that moment, and his automatic inhale at the end of the sneeze meant he floundered for several seconds before his feet touched land and he could clear his nose of river water. That was embarrassing enough, but it was made worse because he knew if he looked over his shoulder that Inuyasha would be watching him.

His ears heated despite the chilly water, and he ignored the feeling of amused eyes on his back. *Graceful as a one-legged human running up stairs. Hey, why the hell should I care what he thinks?* His brain, being fairly intelligent, immediately supplied him with half a dozen good reasons: because Inuyasha was his rival, his pack leader, his…well, he didn’t want to humiliate himself in front of the lighter demon, basically. *Yeah, just because he brought me to my knees doesn’t mean I have to act like it. Crap. I can’t even tell when I’m being sarcastic now.*

Fuming at himself, the gods, and especially the mutt responsible for this whole situation, Kouga finally reached the sandbar he’d been aiming for, flopping down on his back with his feet upstream. The water rippled around his heels and reached to mid-thigh, and he stared up at the noon sun while he listened to the peaceful sound of water running right below his ears. The air was pleasantly warm, the sun’s direct rays on the river hinting of summer’s unbearable heat to come while the shade from the surrounding forest held onto spring and the river water still had some of the mountains’ melted snow chill. It was a beautiful day, something he hadn’t had the time or inclination to notice lately.

And yet…there were no animal calls. Not a single bird chirped, and the bloodscent of woodland creatures lingered over the area. However perfect the setting, it was hard to forget the red-eyed demon who’d killed everything in it.

Kouga shivered and put it out of his mind, determinedly finding another train of thought to follow.

*Alright, I’ll admit that it’s good to feel clean.* He rolled that around in his head and decided he could agree with that. Blood and dirt no longer crusted his skin, and he luxuriated in the lack of dog scent overlaying his own. He’d been concerned when he’d left the river for the first time that Inuyasha would attack because of that missing claim, but the dog hadn’t been trying to kill him. He just didn’t want Kouga leaving the water.

That was odd, but it wasn’t like he had any pressing engagements requiring him to get out of the river. He’d ask if he’d get attacked again in a few minutes. Kouga let his eyes look over at the tree overhanging the other side of the river, studying the pale-skinned halfbreed who, in turn, was watching him. The wolf quickly looked back to the sky and mentally rescheduled asking about leaving the water. It could wait until the intent look left Inuyasha’s crimson eyes. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to find out what that look was for.

Although he had a pretty good idea of--*Time to think of something else. Um…that’s gotta be the most relaxed I’ve seen him since the rut took him,* he decided. *I wonder how much of that is because I…ah, we…* His ears burned red as he clearly remembered what exactly he’d done with the rutting demon only hours ago. So much for changing the subject.

It wouldn’t cause his stomach to flip-flop like this if he hadn’t enjoyed it, and that was what made his cheeks flush. He shouldn’t have lost control like that, much less be thinking about it later with anything but disgust, but the feeling of utter surrender had stuck with him. He had submitted completely, and as if in reward he could almost feel the way his climax had exploded through his body. It was enough to make him abruptly turn over on the sandbar to douse his stirring cock in cold water. He could only hope the dog demon hadn’t smelled the faint odor of arousal before the water washed it away. *When the hell did I become so horny?*

Slightly grumpy but more resigned, he rolled over to continue looking at the sky. *Probably when I met Kagome.* Why was that? Demon bitches didn’t arouse him like a human did. The more he thought about it, the stranger that seemed. Adolescent bitches only became attractive as mates when they went into their first heat, yet Kagome smelled enticing no matter when he encountered her. Now that he thought about it, it did seem kind of odd that he would be stiff and edgy around her when none of the demon bitches could induce that reaction without being in heat. Were humans in heat all the time? A thoughtful frown creased his brow. *Huh. No wonder they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. And that would explain why they’re so fertile, too.* His eyebrows rose suddenly, and blue eyes opened wide with excitement as he saw the bigger picture. *I could keep her pupped twice a year! No, wait, how long are human pregnancies? They’re longer than one of us, and they don’t have as many pups, but how would having halfbreed pups affect that?*

Okay, so he’d have to look into gestation time sometime later, but that didn’t stop his plans right now. A bitch--uh, human who was fertile all the time would rebuild his pack in far less time than he’d originally planned, and he propped himself up onto his elbows in the water, tense and excited as he revised his vision of the next ten years. *Wow, I knew she’d breed more often, but not having to wait for her to go into season would knock whole months off between pups, and with the other bitches to help with the litters, she wouldn’t be too strained to keep breeding. And having litters to care for would keep the widowed bitches in the pack--I don’t think any of them would give a damn if the pups were halfbreeds as long as they felt that by raising a litter they were useful to the pack. I know most of them didn’t want to leave us to find another mate, but their choices are too limited inside the pack anymore. Kagome’s got such a big heart, she’d pop herself giving everyone a pup to coddle. Shit, she’s gonna be the best mate a leader could have!*

If Kagome became his mate.

Reality asserted itself with the subtly of an ogre with a mallet, and Kouga’s eyes clouded with worry for the future of his pack. Slowly settling back into the water, he put one hand to his forehead and sighed. Inuyasha had ranked him, which meant that the dog had first pick of mates, and that put him between Kouga and Kagome. *Unless he decides on that undead priestess, what’s-her-name, Kiki or something. I wonder what’s so great about her that he’s not outright claiming Kagome?* Not that Inuyasha wasn’t a twit usually, but it had slightly puzzled the wolf that his rival kept insisting that Kagome was only a shard detector to him while anyone with a nose could tell that he wanted her. The story about Naraku’s treachery and the priestess’ death was tragic, sure, but he couldn’t understand why the mutt hadn’t moved on with the living. Maybe wolves were more decisive than dogs, since they mated for life. *His loss. If he doesn’t claim her as his mate, then she’s fair game for me again.*

Yeah, that might work. Inuyasha hadn’t gone through the trouble of subduing Kouga as a substitute if he meant to take Kagome for mating during the rut, and that meant Kouga still had a chance. After all, it was only the rut and his demon heritage raging out of control that gave Inuyasha such power and confidence. Once the rut ran its course, the halfbreed would revert back to his usual indecisive self, stuck between old and new loves, and then…

Kouga grinned like a wolf cutting the weak animal out of a herd. *Then I beat the snot outta the mutt and take back my place at the head of the pack!* Happily imagining the day the rut finally ended, he smirked up at the sun and stretched luxuriously. His back arched, and he dug his shoulderblades into the sandbar with a grunt of satisfaction. *A few more days, and this’ll be a bad memory. I’ll be able to claim Kagome without a problem if I just keep him away from her until then.* Pfft, and all this time he’d been worried because Inuyasha ranked him. Once the rut was over, he’d just challenge the stupid mutt, and without his demon blood making him feral, the dog demon wouldn’t stand a chance.

*…unless the bloodlust doesn’t stop.* That was a worrying thought, and the wolf splashed flat in the water when it hit. The rut tethered the demon side of Inuyasha to Kouga and restrained the bloodlust toward him--for now. But if the rut ended, there wouldn’t be anything to stop Inuyasha from going on a killing rampage. *And he’d start with me.*

Brow furrowed, the dark demon glanced toward the object of his worries and blinked, sitting up with sudden startlement. The tree was empty. The dog demon’s musky scent still hovered over the river, soothing the wolf’s pack instincts but inflaming his survival ones; never, ever, let danger out of your sight. For a brief second, he looked around wildly until something white caught his peripheral vision. He blinked again and turned to look downstream.

Long hair flowing in his wake, Inuyasha glided through the river with lazy grace, crimson eyes half-lidded. The water seemed to reflect sunlight straight onto him, making his pale skin and hair blindingly white. In contrast, it made the jagged scars on his cheeks and elongated fangs poking over his bottom lip all the more prominent. Sharp claws cut the water like flesh, and the dog demon leisurely enjoyed the sensation. Water didn’t bleed as the part of him humming with blood-hunger wished for, but patience, patience.

He knew the wolf watched him warily from upstream, but this required concentration. His blood sang with demon need, his groin twitched and swelled with rut, and it distracted him from coherence. Too easily could he lose himself in slaughter or sex, demon or animal, viciously intelligent or adrift in sensation. Each had a time, and that time wasn’t now. Now was the time for patience. He drifted, allowing the current to carry him where it may.

This morning he’d been satiated enough to hear and understand the muttered words of the dark-haired demon he’d taken as mate, and the fragile balance of rut and bloodlust had been restored. Although the depths of his chaotic mind churned with buried memories of a human girl, the majority of instinct had centered on the wolf as his. Defeated, dominated, and his. With that possessive claim came responsibilities that he’d neglected for the past day until Kouga had once again learned his place.

He’d provided shelter that the darker demon had found acceptable and used. When the wolf had muttered something about feeling filthy, he’d led him miles from the clearing to this river so he could bathe. He’d provided food back at the den, but it was no longer fresh. Unfortunately, he’d already emptied the immediate area of game, and most animals had evacuated the forest in general. Unsuccessful hunting had frustrated him, especially since he’d had to keep an eye on the wolf. His reluctant mate just wouldn’t stay where he put him, making Inuyasha keep checking on him in case he tried to leave. He remembered Kouga running once, and every so often a subconscious nudge prodded him to check that it didn’t happen again, whispering in the back of his head, *Can’t go far. Stay close. Stay away from Kagome. Can’t go far.*

Bloodlust stymied by the lack of prey, rut rising, he’d found a tree to brood in that let him watch over the wolf while he tried to think. Coherence rose slow and unsteady through the warring elements in his mind, and he’d almost given up before he found a solution. It was hard to resist temptation, but there were simple requirements to fulfill, and then the time for responsibility would be over.

So he watched patiently, waiting, waiting as white hair curled, rippled, uncurled in the water.

“What the hell?” Confused, Kouga sat up and watched the dog demon float, unmoving, toward him. “If you think I’m going to stop you from drowning yourself, mutt…”

One dog ear laid flat, indicating that Inuyasha heard him, but the white dog’s attention remained steadily on the hair moving with the swirling current. A fish darted into the shadow of his body, nibbling the white strands curiously. Too small. Patience. Another fish, larger but more cautious. It flashed in and out of his shadow, scales shining in the sunlit water as the bait drew it in. Closer, closer…his wolf was talking again, and he thought distantly about tearing out Kouga’s throat, but he focused. Patience felt foreign, but demon bloodlust boiling in his veins gave him intelligence enough to see how slowly stalking lunch like this would ultimately let him--

He struck, red eyes blazing gleefully as his claws impaled the fish and brought up out of the water. His other hand shredded the bright scales into a mangled rain of skin that glittered in the sun. It happened so fast the fish still wriggled with life when the panting demon finished ripping it apart.

All Kouga saw was a spray of water as the white dog surged upward in abrupt, savage motion, and then suddenly a bloody, ragged piece of flesh smacked into his chest with a wet splat. He went over backward with a yelp of surprise, fumbling at the thing flapping around on him. It slipped out his hands, coating them in the last of its smelly fish guts (the rest having splattered on his chest upon impact), and flopped into the water, where death finally registered in its fishy brain.

“What the fucking hell was that?!” Kouga roared, shooting upright. He frantically wiped his hands down his chest and smeared fish guts everywhere before he belatedly realized what had just happened. He stared at the dead fish floating away. “Huh? What’s that for?” He winced at how befuddled he sounded even as he spoke. *Not at my best, am I?*

Inuyasha snorted and swam smoothly downstream to retrieve the fish, throwing it at the wolf once more. The darker demon managed to catch most of the mess this time, but some of it detached from the main parts and stuck wherever the bits landed. Inuyasha didn’t seem to care that Kouga’s bewilderment changed to irritation, but his ears flattened and perked forward again with amusement at the sight of him with pieces of fish stuck to his chest and face. “Eat, wolf,” he barked shortly.

Blue eyes widened and looked down at the fish. “…oh.” That was what it was for. More of the dog demon’s obsession with stuffing him with food, apparently. Suddenly it made more sense, although that didn’t stop him from resenting the mutt’s method of delivery. But while he wasn’t exactly comfortable with being provided for, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He had been getting hungry, after all.

He eyed the dripping corpse somewhat dourly. *But did it have to be fish? Why not something without scales?* He looked up to see the white demon pursuing his own lunch with, uh, demonic enthusiasm, and quickly averted his eyes. He’d seen a lot of violence in his lifetime, but that didn’t mean he always kept his appetite around it. And since when did he feel sympathy for fish? *It looks like he doesn’t have a problem with fish. It can’t be his wolf ancestry that’s given him a taste for it.* Wolves didn’t generally eat a lot of aquatic things, and Kouga himself didn’t like the tiny needle-bones that always got stuck in his teeth. Besides, fishy things tasted slimy to him. *Ugh. Oh, well, at least I didn’t have to catch it. Food is food.*

Face set in an expression anyone else would call a pout, Kouga crossed his legs on the sandbar and leaned an elbow on his knee, picking at the fish and sulking. He ignored the occasional fin or entrails that splashed into the water around him as Inuyasha continued his psychotic fisher feeding frenzy nearby. It was ridiculously easy to ignore the thrashing when he put his mind to it. All he had to do was distract himself by thinking of Kagome in, say, some furs instead of that weird costume she wore. Maybe he could give her a set as a gift. Didn’t humans woo each other with gifts? *She’d look too pale in white, and black would make it worse. One of the human villages has to have someone who could dye some furs a strong red-brown. That’d look good on her. Or, heeeey, I could get her furs that match my fur!* The mental picture that accompanied that thought made him smile.

A moment later he grimaced and picked at his teeth, grumbling, “Dammit. Always gotta get one stuck way in the back.”

“Who’re you talking to, wuss?”

He looked up, surprised by both the tone of the question and the question itself. That had sounded almost…teasing. But the question was more like something he’d expect Inuyasha--the old Inuyasha, the halfbreed he was accustomed to--to snap at him. His mouth opened automatically with a smart remark he suppressed at the last second. Instead, he licked his lips nervously. “Um.”

The white dog stood calmly in the river as if he hadn’t been traumatizing the fish a moment earlier, watching him, tilting his head curiously. As calm as he appeared, however, in the stress lines around his red eyes Kouga could see cold-blooded hatred fighting to emerge. Without conscious thought, the wolf’s nose flared. Above the wet green scent of the river rose a sick smell that reminded him of a predator with the foaming madness disease. He was beginning to associate that scent with the transformed dog demon, and the comparison didn’t seem too far off from the truth. Ripping the fish apart had brought the demon too close to breaking loose.

*Shit on me!* Dropping the last of his lunch, Kouga tore his gaze away from the dog’s eyes. *Right, don’t challenge him. What else?* He’d done this before, and it was getting easier. Somehow, that wasn’t much of a comfort to his easily embarrassed demon side, although instinct soothed his pulse down from thundering in his ears. It nudged him into the correct behavior, and for once he didn’t question its direction.

Heck, his wolf nature had saved his ass so far.

He tried to think of what he was doing in a clinically detached manner, but it wasn’t really working. Three days of rutting had changed him too much for that. He needed to bring the rut to the surface, and it would control the mutt’s demon blood. His ears turned a delicate pink as he lifted his chin deliberately, and the white dog’s eyebrows rose slightly with interest, sharp crimson eyes clouding with a look that was most definitely not hate. *I can’t believe this. I’m practically inviting dog crap to take me!* Of course, if this turned out anything like last time--*Not thinking about that!*

Even Kouga’s battered pride had to preen when Inuyasha’s face lost its strain and became a mask of lust. There was something distinctly flattering (well, at least for the part of him that didn’t mind thinking about it) about having that kind of effect on someone, especially a demon who couldn’t be controlled otherwise. The tip of the wolf’s tail, its usual fluff now a soaked rattail, swished slightly, and the part of Kouga vehemently in denial over the issue (the conscious part, which should be noted as the part trying to stop his tail before anyone noticed) felt unaccountably smug without knowing why.

He had a moment to regret not leaving the river for the sake of his water-wrinkled fingers and toes, but then the pale demon was upon him, bowling him over to straddle his hips. Before he had a chance to react, his wrists were wrapped in an iron grip and guided into the water on either side of his head. Trying to pin him down on a sandbar was foolishness, so the white dog resorted to simply holding him in place. Kouga’s heart skipped a beat as long fangs lowered toward his throat, and he sucked in an anxious breath through his nose, wondering if he’d misjudged.

The deep breath was a mistake. Heavy musk nearly smothered him, radiating off Inuyasha’s skin powerfully enough to make the wolf’s head reel. Blue eyes grew just a bit glazed, overwhelmed by the density of the musk trapped between the river’s surface and the pale-skinned body above him. The noon sun outlined Inuyasha’s head, playing tricks with Kouga’s eyes so that he couldn’t make out the dog’s face and adding to his disorientation. The body covering his own vibrated with a growl so low he could only feel it rattling his bones, invading his very being with his alpha’s utter confidence.

The dark-haired wolf’s whole body jolted, splashing weakly in the water as Inuyasha nipped lightly at the pulse point on his throat, and the dog demon dragged his tongue up to flick the sensitive nerve cluster behind one pointed ear. A husky growl in that same ear actually drew a breathy sound that could have been a whimper or perhaps a moan from the dazed wolf. No resistance corded the muscled forearms in his hands, and he gentled his grip. When his companion stayed submissive, throat exposed and body limp, he let go completely and ran clawed hands down the bronzed arms hard enough to leave red welts even under the chill water. The sound that came from the wolf’s throat this time was definitely a moan.

It enflamed the rut further, as did the rising tinge of arousal in the wolf’s lightening-storm scent. The niggling thought that he shouldn’t treat the darker demon with the consideration he’d give a real mate drowned in a flood of pleasure when Inuyasha’s hips rocked, pushing the head of his cock in a small circle on Kouga’s belly. Water beads on the tan skin broke into wet trails following his shaft. His claws raked down the sides of the wolf’s heaving sides; slowly, one rib at a time, not drawing blood but threatening to at the least sign of struggling. The half-closed blue eyes blinked wide, clearing somewhat at the borderline pain, and his hands tightened as they settled on the wolf’s waist.

Kouga hissed as a claw pierced his skin, but he took it as the warning it was and stayed pliant. He clung to the shame that brought a blush to his cheeks, preferring indignation and dislike of the stupid halfbreed over the guilty feeling of relief that he could give in. He couldn’t fight, right? He’d beaten all that to death yesterday, and this morning had started with his voluntary surrender. Now he could only lay here and take it, and blame the dog for the fact that his own cock was at half-mast. The inside of the pale demon’s thigh rubbed rhythmically across the tip of his erection, and he started to move with the slow rhythm, blush deepening to a humiliated maroon.

A large chunk of his body and mind had no problem enjoying sex with Inuyasha. The white demon rutting with him was his pack leader, and there was nothing wrong with what they did. Kouga’s blush was for the other part of himself, the part that saw Inuyasha as his rival and yet was too damn honest to deny what his rival’s tongue was doing to his neck felt wonderful. *I’m gonna fucking kill you!* he railed silently at the transformed halfbreed now molesting the spot right behind his jaw. It made more than one area of his body twitch. *Please don’t stop.*

He almost didn’t notice when the white dog adjusted their positions. Between the rumbling growl working its spell of obedience over the wolf and the nibbling on his neck seducing the demon, Kouga wasn’t quite all there anymore.

The former was simply Inuyasha asserting his dominance; the latter was because, once he’d discovered a spot that made his mate react, he attacked it mercilessly. He dimly remembered that penetration hurt his wolf, and that seemed like a failure of duty. He wasn’t supposed to hurt him, despite the urge to rip open the exposed throat and revel in the spurting arteries. In the tangled muddle of his warring mind, the hatred faltered and it made sense. Enough sense, anyway. So while he knelt between the darker demon’s spread legs and sought underwater with one hand, his tongue traced veins down past Kouga’s collarbone. Aqua pupils dilated at the smell of blood so near, and he couldn’t resist one sharp bite at the crux of several veins.

Kouga yelped quietly, his hands helplessly clenched by his head as Inuyasha greedily lapped at the blood leaking from the injured nipple like a deranged pup nursing from its mother. The damaged nub, already cold-pebbled, hardened under warm swipes from the languorous tongue seeking every drop of blood. He was bleeding, it hurt--so why the hell did his hips surge up? The hand on his hip forced him back down, the thumb absently massaging in a place that made Kouga forget the pain of the bite and swallow a needy whine. *I will not sound like a bitch in heat this time. But if he stops, I’m gonna kill--* A faint whimper escaped his lips, and his face burned as crimson eyes snapped up to study him intently.

Inuyasha’s head tilted as if in thought, the transformed halfbreed’s dangerous intelligence shining through the rut for a crucial second, and Kouga’s eyes widened comically in horror. He was beginning to see how the pale demon was playing his body, and heck if he knew why the game was on in the first place--but he was starting to get a feel for the rules. Clever, clever dog, and Kouga crossly resolved not to give him a reaction to spring on this time. The thumb at the base of his cock paused, then began stroking more purposefully. His heels dug into the sand, he sank his fangs into his bottom lip, and still it was all he could do not to writhe and arch against the hand holding him down. *Gods above, I’m gonna tear his head off!*

“D-don’t!” he managed to get out, voice wavering badly. He would have sounded much more convincing if it were at all clear what exactly he meant: don’t do that, or don’t stop? All he got in response was an eloquent eye roll. The white head bent once again to nuzzle his chest, and Kouga gulped down a despairing moan at his own desire.

It came out in a startled grunt when something sharp and warm slid into the crack of his ass, probing the little hole there. Inuyasha smirked triumphantly. His claws whispered across the opening he’d sought, and he hesitated. The thought fought to the surface, cloudy with impatient lust: *Sharp.* Sharp claws that could injure the demon underneath him as surely as his engorged cock would. Blood pounded in his head, almost an ache, and against the pressure he tried to think. Planning more than a few minutes in the future required much effort.

Kouga grunted again, blue eyes wide as he stared at the white hair and flattened ears that blocked his view of what invaded his body. Sharp and rasping, working its way into him in a way that skittered up his body to clench the muscles under his ribs, demanding that he squirm away, but at the same time he consciously kept himself frozen. Sharp and rasping hadn’t cut him yet, but trying to wriggle free might change that. And if that was what it felt like, he had absolutely no wish to be sliced by it. He stared at the top of Inuyasha’s head, still giving half-suppressed twitches when the mutt’s creased tongue caressed the right places, and forget understanding the rules of the game. He just wanted to know what exactly they were playing for. *What the hell is he doing?!* He opened his mouth to ask and closed it when nothing came out. What was he supposed to say? *That…that has to be a finger. Why is he shoving his finger up my--* He swallowed, the squirmy feeling climbing into his stomach to flutter about.

The dog’s--oh, that had to be a finger--pushed in up to a knuckle. From the flexing inside him, that was probably the second knuckle. It didn’t hurt, really, but the ring of muscle stretched around insistent pressure that it hadn’t been designed to handle gracefully. Even stranger, inside him was the gentle scrape of a claw he’d felt tear open his skin far too recently; just as recently, that same area had been abused by more than a claw. The odd circumstances menaced the confused wolf, and one of Kouga’s hands yanked itself out of the water in knee-jerk reaction.

He stopped himself, fist hovering above the water surface and dripping as tension shook it. The effort it took to not strike clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, but still he couldn’t lower his hand. He wanted to shove the dog away, but common sense told him the pale demon would rip him apart if he fought. The wolf wanted to put his hand back down where his alpha had placed it; the demon wanted to attack before the gentle touch changed to tearing pain. Whatever new thing Inuyasha was attempting scared the wolf precisely because it was new. He had no idea what to do, and so his fist trembled with indecision. Trust, so deeply ingrained in pack behavior, fought against visceral fear of this frightening new behavior.

Stuck between trust and fear, angry and curious and overall bewildered, Kouga finally became aware of the lack of sound. The river ran under his ear. His hand dripped tiny splashes. The background growling that had been rumbling in his bones had died away.

And Inuyasha had stopped moving.

The dark demon’s eyes opened cautiously, the slit pupils narrow in the noon sun. Blue stared into red and aqua, and the wolf swallowed a curse. Inuyasha looked…not calm, but not murderous. The hard length against his thigh told him what kind of mood he was in. But the white brows were lifted inquiringly, and Kouga had no idea how to answer the question, even if he could get his throat to unlock.

All Inuyasha knew was that his wolf smelled anxious and unhappy, a combination he faintly remembered causing trouble previously. It made him uneasy. The responses he had been coaxing from the sun-bronzed body had dried up as the scent of fear had increased, and he’d stopped in order to look for threats. Looking around revealed no enemy, nor did sampling the wind. He studied his companion for clues and found them. Kouga had no idea how expressive his eyes could be, and those wide blue eyes pleaded for something from him. They showed white all the way around the pupil, they were so wide. Speech had long since been lost to the blood throbbing between his head and groin, but the transformed halfbreed whined a question.

Kouga literally couldn’t make himself say anything. His mind overflowed with conflicting impulses and demands, and yet none of them could reach his mouth. Instead, a soft noise, not a whimper or quite a whine, wavered free. Paralyzed by his own confusion, it was the best he could do. Maybe later he would be furious at the pathetic appeal for reassurance, but at this moment he could be nothing more than a beta wolf looking for guidance.

Fortunately, the rut understood. Where words would have taken time to decipher, that confused little sound spoke straight to the dominant male, and Inuyasha’s guarded stance loosened. Ah. For once he knew what disturbed his partner. A low sound came from deep in his throat, less a growl than a comforting croon, and the hand he’d been using to pin down the wolf’s hips slid up his trembling body to firmly press that suspended fist back down into the water among floating tangles of black hair. There was resistance, but then, like a crack of a breaking branch, the arm relaxed in his grip. Watching blue eyes blinked surrender at him, and the wolf’s chin lifted. Instinct hitched a notch higher over demon bloodlust, and the slightly baffled intelligence that had compromised between the two all morning thought, *It’s time.*

The game ended, and the winner took his prize. His prize was strangely okay with that, at least by comparison. Still…*I shouldn’t be reacting like this,* Kouga thought, but the sharp fangs dimpling his skin continued to calm the butterflies fluttering madly in his stomach. Hot breath blew against his throat, soothing the wild fear that had been poised to overwhelm him, and he gasped as the finger inside him moved once more--not in, however, but out. The drag of the claw as it came out made his body shiver involuntarily, blanking his thoughts while his softened member swelled with renewed interest.

He couldn’t find it in himself to resent when the hand that had invaded him so intimately pulled at his hip. He was almost grateful for the distraction, hoping it would keep his thoughts at bay. He simply rolled over, hiding his face behind a soaked curtain of his hair as color rose in his cheeks.

He couldn’t want this.

He couldn’t.

But honestly..?

Had anything been left alive in the surrounding forest, perhaps it would have heard the quiet wet sounds from the river: the slap of skin-on-skin, grunts of effort and pain, muffled noises of pleasure. Perhaps it would have investigated, sneaking to the river bank to see the strange demons making the sounds as they moved together in the shallow water. And perhaps if it were smart, it would flee…or maybe the sight would mesmerize it. Lying flat on his front, half-submerged, the darker demon had a kind of beauty that combined handsome features and an air of captured freedom, like a collared wolf. Ripples spread from his body with the demons’ rhythmic movement, and his muscles jumped though he didn’t move. His bronze and sable body seemed chained by nothing but the will of the paler demon mounting him, and his passive acceptance only accentuated the wild-animal energy.

The tangle of wet hair didn’t hide a glimpse of white fangs biting into a full lip, and a watcher might have been enticed closer yet by the erotic promise of what the dark demon tried to stifle. Was it pleasure…or pain? Was he a tame wolf trying to break free, or a wild wolf trying to be tame? Spread beneath the pale demon in a submissive sprawl, nape caught in impressive teeth, the bottom demon didn’t have any choice but to take--and the watcher could nearly feel the shudders and jolts as each thrust pounded in to the sound of ambiguous yelps and moans. If the watcher watched closely, it might see the small motion that might be the darker demon’s hips pumping, backing into the thrusts, just maybe working his own cock into the sand while the dominant demon grunted above him.

A watcher would have been better off running for its life, but even the most innocent would be tempted into voyeurism by the sight of the white demon. If the dark demon was beautiful in his dual freedom and captivity, the pale demon embodied sex so single-mindedly his handsomeness had become brutal. There was a sort of grotesque magnetism in the sleek body and contorted face. The dark demon under him was a wild animal on a leash, but he was an animal gone crazy with lust, only kept from raging out of control by his focus on his mate. Anyone watching would wonder with fearful desire what it would be like to be pinned by that mad fixation. Would an outsider be possessed as well, utterly and completely subdued, or destroyed by the savage force sheathing himself? Would the pale demon’s teeth tear into willing flesh, pink tongue licking blood instead of sweat?

Fascinated and repulsed, a watcher would hesitate to turn away as the pale demon’s rod slammed in and out with thrusts that made the dark demon thrash in the water, struggling up to his knees to meet them. The white demon allowed it, hands braced in the water instead of holding him still, and breathless panting yelps sounded more like one continuous yell now as they merged, light riding dark in hard, violent jerks that would weaken any watcher’s knees. The building snarl coming from the pale demon would have melted those knees, bringing a listener down and already offering its throat for the taking, just please take…cover and use and dominate…

When the pale demon climaxed, his howl echoed down the river as he drove one final time into the demon still half-laying in the water. With a mewling cry, the dark demon followed suit, his cock spurting white seed into the water between his quivering thighs. He moaned faintly, and the paler demon licked his shoulder in a bizarrely overprotective gesture. In a voice like a growl, the paler demon declared, “Mine.”

Perhaps that would shake a wise watcher into prying its gaze away then, if it was able, before that dog-eared demon came after it for seeing what he had claimed for his and his alone. And as it hurried away--aroused or sated or sensibly scared out of its wits, depending on what it had done while watching--it might hear the dark demon say in a tired, worn voice:

“Yours. So can I get out of the water now?”


* * * * *
End Part 13
* * * * *


To clear up some confusion, I am not taking requests. Er, at least I don’t think I am. So far, the characters have pretty much taken over the plot and rewritten it without telling me, so I’m not really in charge of this fic anymore. Wild fic! Wild fic! Look out--down, boy! Ow, it bit me…kiss it and make it better. *smirk*

It’s very easy to amuse me, if you can’t tell.

Anyway, everybody give a big welcome to Kouga, the newest student for Realism in Sex 102 (he finally got out of 101 last chapter). Inuyasha’s entirely self-taught, and having trouble keeping his mind on the job. Tsk, tsk. These two are just going to have to practice a lot before they get it right. Shame about that. Mwahahaha. Other than that, there are a few important plot points that are going to come back in future chapters, but mostly I just wanted to give Kouga a bath. ;) I’m kinda worried that I’m changing Kouga’s reactions too fast…I mean, he adapts pretty fast to changing situations in the series, so I’m trying to stick his characterization to that.

The switch to an outsider’s perspective at the end was for the sake of difference. As for if there was actually someone watching…well, weren’t you?

Remember, feedback keeps me interested in this story, especially since this thing is now officially of monster-length. The only other story I have that’s this long is competing for my time to be written. Of course, there’s no porn in that story, more’s the pity, so I don’t get poked as often to work on it. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed already!