Deceit, Lies and Malice
(FanFiction/Inuyasha/Angst)
By Danyealle
Chapter 13
Sitting down at his desk, Sesshomaru leaned back in his chair with his eyes shut. It had been a very long day. It was now just after dark and he had been up since dawn’s first light. First, Kouga and his two underlings had arrived right after breakfast. Once they were settled in he and Kouga had started work on a preliminary pact between the two. That hadn’t been as easy as it sounded because he wasn’t yet privy to the espionage that was going on. Telling the ookami he was going to have to wait until Inuyasha showed up.
About mid-afternoon the hanyou, with his pack, made it to the fortress. Of course that had caused a bit of controlled chaos. As one would expected, knowing what happened most times when Inuyasha and Kouga were together, they started exchanging insults and scrapping like they normally did. It took a while to get them to calm down.
After that Inuyasha had wanted to spend a bit of time alone with Kagome, something the Western Lord had agreed to. Being Sesshomaru’s mate and with the charade still going on, it wouldn’t do to have the servants, or anyone else, see her slipping out of his room so they had to be extra careful to not get caught. Yes, that was hard on him especially with the knowledge that sex would probably be involved in it. That was strange in and of its self. He had known since the beginning that they were intimate and would be sharing a mate. It hadn’t bothered him in the least. Until now. It was a bit late in the game to develop a jealous streak. As he thought it over the best he could come up with was it had to do with his mark.
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After supper he and Kouga were closeted in his study beginning negotiations. Kagome was with them, ensconced in his lap. Not much could be done other than a few preliminary things. To get down to the brass tacks Inuyasha had to be there and he hadn’t graced the gathering with his presence yet.
In deciding to enlist the wolf demon’s help, Sesshomaru was taking a calculated risk. For what he would need to work they were going to have to reveal what was really going on to the ookami. He would be the only one besides the three of them to know the whole truth. Yes, doing that was taking a big risk but he was counting on several things he knew about the wolf demon to make it work.
Kouga’s desire for revenge on Naraku was the big one he was counting on. The fact that he and Inuyasha didn’t care who dealt the death blow to Naraku, though they would like to do it themselves, worked in his favor. If they worked together they could all claim part of the credit when the spider was forced from this plane.
There was also his relationship with Kagome. Yes, he had made that ‘my woman’ claim for what seemed like forever. Now, she was mated to another. He didn’t think it would be too much of an obstacle to overcome. First and foremost, she was a good friend to him and some of his pack. She helped them out several times in different ways including fighting along side of them. Even without his claims his pack adored her and she was seen as a member of it. Even his two underlings called her sis. The taiyoukai doubted the ookami would back away from helping to protect her.
Then there was his relationship with Inuyasha. Despite the fighting and scrapping there was a mutual respect between the two. Both had assisted the other several times in the past.
But, by far, the biggie was that Kouga was well aware that any deal he would cut with Sesshomaru would elevate his status, gain him some clout and give him an ally in the future if he needed one.
Finally, Inuyasha, sans his usual fire rat and dressed much like Sesshomaru, let himself into the study. After exchanging the usual insults with Kouga he seated himself on a small sofa by Sesshomaru’s desk. Then, as they had already planned out before hand, he pulled Kagome into his lap and kissed her passionately. When he broke it off she giggled and snuggled up to him then took hold of Sesshomaru’s hand.
Seeing the look of absolute stunned shock on the ookami’s handsome face made Sesshomaru smirk. That look was just what he had wanted. Leaning over, the demon lord kissed her as well then relaxed back in his chair. In his normal, smooth tone of voice he said, “In order to start the heavy negotiations the three of us feel you need to know what is really going on, not what people perceive.”
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Two hours later a gobsmacked Kouga stared, mouth hanging open, at the trio. He, like everyone else, had not seen through Kagome an Inuyasha’s act. In fact, he had thought the hanyou was lower than dirt for being so careless with Kagome’s feelings and putting a walking corpse above her.
Once he knew the full story he was more than willing to work with them and lend his support. He would be traveling with the shard hunting group most of the time and help with the hunt for Naraku. Wolves under his control would be used to relay messages to and from the fortress. They would be perfect messengers because no one would suspect or think anything about them if they were seen.
Until Kikyo was gone, in a gruff voice Inuyasha confirmed to them that her end wasn’t far off; he would help the hanyou keep up the charade while making sure the rest that traveled with him were protected when he wasn’t around.
Neither of those things were something the ookami had a problem with. Unlike some beings Kouga was big enough to admit that he probably would never been able to take on Naraku by himself and win.
As far as Kouga could tell he only had one problem with the situation. For as long as he had known Inuyasha the Kikyo factor had been involved. Now, with what he knew, he would have to change his opinion of the hanyou and look at his actions differently. What it boiled down to was he wasn’t sure if he could act the same as he always had to the hanyou. If he couldn’t then it may well cause some serious problems down the road. That was something he was going to have to work with to maintain.