Captive Inu

Chapter 16

"So, you truly are the original Higarashi heir?" Kazu asked several hours later.

After the meeting had ended, Kagome had gone to her room and thought over everything she'd learned. It was all so hard to believe, but it was the truth. She knew that because she remembered. She remembered her father, a big handsome Daiinuyoukai, her beautiful stepmother Shinimi, and her only other childhood friend, as well as her half brother, Souta. Her father was a quite jolly male who always made her laugh and smile. He loved his mate dearly, though he never ever spoke of Kagome's birth mother. Shinimi was as cold as she was beautiful, but she was warm and open to Kagome, Souta, and her mate. Souta had always been a mischievous child, always causing trouble. But he had adored Kagome to no end, always following her around and doing whatever it was she did.

Remembering her family had brought on feelings that were both familiar and foreign to her. She had wanted to weep at their loss, to experience the grief she'd never felt because she hadn't known them when in the dark castle, but she couldn't. The tears wouldn't come. They would burn the back of her eyes, sting in her throat, and make her heart squeeze painfully over and over again, but they had stubbornly refused to fall.

Then she'd thought over what she'd learned about her brother. Growing up, he'd always been lacking when it came down to their lessons on being a ruler. Everything they'd been taught had gone through one of his ears and out the other, so Kagome hadn't been terribly surprised to learn that he was a poor leader. But he wasn't just a poor ruler. He was a cold, brutal one who cared nothing for his people. Grief had turned him into what he was today. At least, Kagome hoped it was grief. She couldn't stand to think that her little ototo had always been this way.

"Hai, I am," she responded, looking up at him from her spot on the ground. He sat leaning back on the bench they favored, gazing down at her with a thoughtful look.

"Interesting." His mouth turned down slightly at the corners. "I apologize, milady. Had I known my lord hadn't told you about the North's past, I certainly would have."

Kagome nodded once, still upset that the icy lord of the west had failed to tell her himself. "It's okay. I think it's better that Kouga told me anyway. Sesshomaru was correct in one thing. Kouga had a closer insight of what happened than he did, so it was better that he told me." That still didn't excuse the bastard for intentionally keeping information about herself from her.

"Right," he muttered. "This Kouga..."

Kagome raised her eyebrows. "What about him?"

Kazu looked momentarily uncomfortable. "Ah... Um..." He cleared his throat. "I know you two were childhood friends and all, but..."

Kagome tilted her head in question. She almost smiled. She'd never seen the easygoing Kazu look so befuddled. "Hai?" She prodded.

He hesitated. "Were you two...more?" He blushed immediately. "Forgive me for asking."

Kagome's eyes widened a bit. "Me and Kouga? Why do you ask?"

His blush deepened, transforming his face from manly handsome to boyishly charming. "Well... He calls you 'my woman', so I thought perhaps..."

Kagome blinked with understanding and laughed softly. "Nai! He is extremely handsome, hai, and perhaps there was once a very brief moment where we may have thought about it, but Kouga and I have been friends for far too long for either of us to have tried anything serious. And the 'my woman' thing is nothing, really." She smiled fondly as she recalled those days. "Back then, because I was heir, there were often people who would ask for my hand simply for power. Some were persistent about it, so Kouga, being my overprotective, self-proclaimed guardian, would tell suitors that I was his woman to keep them away. Later, the title just stuck as an inside joke between the two of us."