permission

It wasn’t about his needs.  It was about her needs.

Kouga growled as he punctured the blood bag, tilting her head carefully.  The deep, viscous red drained into her mouth carefully, carefully, just a little at a time.  Her throat bobbed, body reacting, accepting, drinking its necessary fill where her mind had balked.

He could only protect her with permission.  If she was one of his , a member of the Enclave, she was bound to follow his lead as alpha.  He could demand she feed herself, or do so forcibly. It was his job as the leader, making sure all were well.  The wolf found himself rumbling, vibrations echoing from deep in his chest as he struggled with her plight.

Becoming a werewolf hadn’t changed him.  He’d been a half-Jap from the start, his dad a foreigner visiting Dejima that didn’t stick around; his eyes were from that man , however much he hated it.  His appearance had always been his, but Kagome didn’t have that luxury.  He could still walk in daylight, work, have friends… but she didn’t have those luxuries, either.

When Ayame accidentally turned him, her parents had taken him into their Enclave with much love and welcome… but Kagome didn’t even know her sire, and was left to die before she realized what was happening.  She was young… so painfully young next to his centuries, but her life had been reset to the beginning.  The social norms, what she ate, what she wore, who she associated with, even the human’s skewed views of right and wrong were all going to be torn down, and over the ruins, she would have to cobble together something new.  It would never look right; like fitting a hobbit hole with doors of stone and iron, her life would never fit together the same way again.

Once the pack was drained to the bottom, Kouga settled Kagome back into the bed — his bed, he’d conveniently not mentioned, because a spare room wasn’t kept at the ready.  The smell of her grew stones in his gut; youth, death, blood, and tears, edged in the lingering scents of hospital cleaners and ash. She hadn’t asked for this, hadn’t given her permission… sure, it wasn’t unusual for vampires to turn each other at a moment’s notice.  Unlike werewolves, they had to curb their ability to reproduce, and often made split-second, uninformed decisions when they finally decided to turn someone.

Werewolves, sometimes it takes and sometimes it doesn’t.  Vampires? A little too much goes a long way. That’s all Kouga knew, searching his mind for details.  The local Covens were full of enemies, but he had a certain respect for the leader of their Western House.  The guy was an ice block, but he respected the wolves, protected them as he saw necessary. Kouga saw no problems returning the favors.  The Eastern leader… well, he wasn’t to be trusted. That guy had issues. Kouga suspected there would be trouble from that direction soon, but he left those thoughts aside for the time being.

Kagome’s lips twitched, face scrunching.  She looked to be in so much pain; if vampires could cry, it looked like she would… but she couldn’t.

Not anymore.

Kouga turned away to lean back against the mattress.  The Enclave was silent, all good wolves gone to work for the day… but here he sat, listening to the sound of a living corpse not crying in her sleep.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***