Gnashing her teeth together, Kagome bared down and shot forward, running as fast as she could while carrying Kouga's weight. She had never actually given someone a ride like she was at the moment, nor had she ever taken someone with her when she used a shadow as a path. Though she would never tell Kogua, she didn't actually know if she could or not, making trying very, very dangerous for him.

For the last two days, he had been trying to drive into her the importance of instinct, and when in her true form, that was all she had. Everything was automatic, her body doing what it was made to do without thought from her. The problem was, she didn't have a whole lot of control over her forms, and she wasn't sure she would be able to turn back anytime soon. However, since she now knew as long as he held on he would also move through the darkness with her, Kagome nearly went out of her way to use them. It was freeing to her to not have to avoid them like she was so used to doing.

Unlike the first time, Kouga watched the entire run, the feeling of weightlessness when she moved through a shadow took some getting used to. No amount of thinking he was ready for it made it so. It had taken his breath away the first few times, but the more time she spent in one, the easier it became on him. The weirdest part of it was what it looked like. It really was like time stood still for a split second and everything looked like it was dusk instead of early afternoon.

When he heard her begin to pant, Kouga directed her to a nearby river, hoping off her back when she slowed down. Taking a seat on a rock, he crossed his arms and legs, waiting for her to drink her fill. When she did, he cocked a brow when she laid down on the grass. Tilting his head to the side, he made a face. "Aren't you going to shift back?" Seeing her refusal to make eye contact, he hummed and stood, moving to crouch at her head. "Can you?"

Moving her eyes, Kagome looked at him a short moment before averting her eyes again. She figured that would be asked, she just didn't want to have to actually say no.

Clicking his tongue, Kouga hummed in his throat. There were two things he could do at the moment, and took time to consider both. He could walk her through it and help her change back, or he could let her stay like she was until she did it on her own. Setting a hand on her head, Kouga scratched behind her ear, his own head cocked to the side in thought. After a moment, he still hadn't come to his decision, so instead, he decided to just talk to her and see what happened. "How often do you actually change forms, Kagome?"

Eyes rolling into the back of her head at the feel of Kouga's claws on her scalp, in a series of barks, yips, and woofs, explained that it wasn't often, and it had been a pretty long time since she did.

Figuring that was the answer, Kouga nodded. "How long were you like this last time?" Knowing a shrug when he saw one, he nodded again, letting out a breath with a hum. "Alright, I can walk you through changing back, or if you want, you can stay like this. The choice is yours." Head snapping up, Kagome looked at him with clear shock in her eyes, making Kouga grin at her. "I'm not your boss, Mate, nor your lord or prince. I have a job to do, and that's to teach you, not tell you what to do. We're out here so I can help you learn to do things you should already know how to do, not do shit for you. If you wanna stay like this, I don't care. Not indefinitely, mind you, but for a while. This is something you'll need to learn to do anyway."

Kagome, still slightly shocked at the prospect of being allowed to make the decision for herself, just continued to stare at Kouga. Her ability to shift was still pretty involuntary on her part. It was more or less attributed to her emotions, and so long as they weren't in her full control, she wasn't able to actually make the conscience decision on which form she wanted to have. Above and beyond that, and something she certainly didn't want to have to tell anyone, when it came to changing back, that was always something that was not only decided for her, but done for her as well. Either her father or Sesshoumaru shifted their forms and forced her aura back into submission, effectively changing her back themselves. It was why she couldn't do it... she didn't know how.

Kouga sat there and watched as she lowered her head back to the ground and looked down at her front paws. He felt her run the emotional gauntlet, and was more or less able to figure out what she wouldn't say. He was getting better at separating her emotions from his own, which made deciphering her emotions much easier than it had been. Also, since he was starting to be able to tell which emotions actually belonged to who, it made it easier for him not to get overwhelmed, and it also afforded him the ability think through the bombardment of negative emotions his little mate had been feeling since basically the day they arrived in the East.

The surprising thing about that was, the emotions he felt from her weren't what he would have expected from someone that had never spent a day away from home. He expected something that would have would have said she was homesick, but every single negative emotion he felt of hers through their bond always revolved around a perceived inability on her part, and not something that said she missed her home. If there was any indication of that, Kouga would do whatever he had to to have either Touga or Sesshoumaru at the Cave before midday, but there wasn't. Everything bad she felt was solely squared on what she saw others do she couldn't, and as far as he could currently tell, that was the case at the moment.

Moving from sitting on his hunches, Kouga took a seat and crossed his legs, picking up his mate's head and setting it in his lap. Continuing to scratch behind her ear, he leaned back on his other palm. He didn't say anything for another long moment, just grinning slightly as Kagome shifted around on the ground into a somewhat more comfortable position and closed her eyes, seeming to bask in the feel of his claws against her scalp. As the silence stretched on, it wasn't uncomfortable, but it was used for quiet contemplation.

Kouga was trying his best to come up with the best way to help his mate, because there was no reason, whatsoever in his mind, a sixty-five year old demon couldn't do something as mundane as catching a rabbit. He could maybe understand it if they had been going after a demonic hare, but that wasn't the case. They had spent hours hunting down a normal, run of the mill bunny, and it took Kagome shifting forms to even get close, but even then she wasn't the one that caught it; he was. What he had to figure out was how to undo what was, at best, nearly thirty years of oppression, and at worst, a near half century of it.

He absolutely understood Kagome was not just a female, but an heiress, and those two things weighed heavily on how she currently was. However, he also knew neither one was a very good excuse for the fact she was incapable of taking care of herself. There were female demons the island over younger than she was that could catch their own dinner, and there were plenty enough heiresses that could do the same. He hadn't realized just how right he was in his original assessment that Kagome was a pampered princess, and that was what he had to figure out how to change.

The one thing he felt he had going for him in that endeavour was that it seemed mostly to be a confidence issue on her part. She had very little belief in herself personally, because she was never forced to actually put herself to the test and find out what she was capable of. Over their time since they've been gone from the Den, Kagome had faced every challenge Kouga gave her, and met each one after a couple of tries. Well, every one that didn't have to do with hunting, anyway. She was getting slightly better at tracking, he would give her that, but that was only a small part of the overall exercise.

Another thing he had working against him was she was of a very proud line of Inu, but a very proud line of Inu that put males heads and tails over females almost to the point females were nothing more than a means to an end.

From his time in the Western Palace, Kouga had seen first hand that absolutely nothing was expected of any female, not just Kagome. Outside the staff who was paid to do a job, no female present had any form of responsibility, and even the females on the staff didn't have all that much expected of them. There were three females assigned to do something only one was needed for, and they were overseen by a male that picked up whatever slack was left instead of making them do it again until they did it right.

Another thing that was apparent was, though yes, Kagome had proven to be able to defend herself if the need arose, one problem there was, she didn't know how to properly assess a situation to avoid having to. There were a great many times during the games with the other cubs a fight happened when it didn't have to. It was during those that Kouga paid close attention to her, and he wasn't exactly happy with what he saw. To him, it looked more like she was taught just enough defencive tactics to survive long enough for someone else to come to her rescue, but not enough to actually win a fight she wasn't taught how to avoid in the first damn place.

The biggest point of contention Kouga had when it came to that was Kagome had no fucking claws. There was understandable personal hygiene, but that wasn't the case with the stubs on the tips of his mate's fingers. They were literally filed down to nothing, and Kouga wasn't sure she ever had sharp tipped claws at any point in her life. His question was how in Kami's name someone was meant to defend themselves when all they could do with a weapon was stop an attack, and they didn't have the built-in backup weapon they were born with should they lose their blade.

So, not only was her fight or flight instinct nonexistent, she didn't know how to turn defence into offence to get out of the situation altogether, nor did she know how finish what was started, and she lacked the tools necessary for either.

Anyone could be taught responsibility and self-defence, but it was harder to teach something as vital as instinct. Instinct was something every demon was born with, and his mate's entire life was spent suppressing everything that should have come as natural to her as breathing. The biggest suppressed instinct was her ability to control the shadows, and not be controlled by them. Clearly, that ability was intact when she was in her true form, but that wasn't how she was going to be spending the majority of her time. It was that that left Kouga in such a fucking bind.

He didn't want to have to be the hardass he has been, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt Kagome was better than she knew, better than she could ever know. He also knew without a shadow of a doubt she could do anything and everything she put her mind to, but it was getting her to put her mind to it that was so difficult. She had spent her whole life having someone else making her decisions, all but having her life lived for her, and he wasn't sure how to go about changing her perspective on what he's figured out to be the huge issue...

... Her level of confidence.

She didn't believe in herself, and that was her biggest problem. She looked to him to tell her if she was doing something right, instead of trusting herself enough to know she was. It was then he allowed his thoughts to go back over the last couple of days, and he found himself wondering briefly if what he had thought was an eagerness to learn wasn't more of an eagerness to please a male.

One thing he knew without doubt was Kagome was not raised to be an alpha of any kind. She was absolutely not raised for a life of responsibility. She was certainly raised for the life of a Lady, just not the Lady she became. Their accidental mating derailed everything she was raised to become; the quiet, seen and not heard, obedient breeder that did what she was told without question.

Kouga had his own thoughts on the matter of what Inu No Tasho envisioned for Kagome's eventual mating, and the last person Kouga was certain she was ever supposed to be mated to was a Cardinal Heir, especially him. Chances are, her father had a much more politically motivated mating in mind for her, because she was actually in line to take over the Western Lands should something happen to him and Sesshoumaru before the latter of the two had an heir of his own. It would only make sense from that standpoint to actually have a say in who could very possibly take over lordship of those lands some day. As far as that went, Kouga was positive Kagome was destined for some minor inu lord to ensure the West stayed under the ruling of dogs. That would also explain the fact Kagome was as old as she was and lacked basic survival skills.

To be as fair as he could, yes, she possessed other abilities most others at the Den did not. She had her own niche as far as knowledge went. Changes were, as far as that went, she was quite possibly the smartest member of the pack. But, what did the ability to read and write do for you when you're under attack by a rival pack that wants the titles you possess?

Kouga was in no way overstating the fact that unlike the Western Palace, there wasn't a wall or an army between the ruling family and those that thought to attack. There were plenty of protections in place, but nothing was full proof; not even a wall and an army. The location of the den itself was by design, because it wasn't exactly easy to make it up the side of a mountain undetected, but it certainly wasn't impossible. There have been attacks on the den during Kouga's lifetime, just as he knew for a fact there have been multiple attacks on the Western House during Kagome's. The difference is, Kagome was always sequestered away during those attacks on The House of the Moon, and now she would be expected to be involved in the protection of the pack.

No, she absolutely was not expected to fight, but eventually she would be expected to be able to keep the cubs safe by any means necessary. Currently, that was his job, and would remain his job until he reached his first century, at which point the entire scope of his daily responsibilities would change because he'll no longer be considered a cub himself. That was barely over a decade down the road, so he certainly had his work cut out for him to undo several decades worth of damage done to his mate's psyche. He knew everything was more mental than physical. She was just as strong as a demon should be. What he had to figure out was how to prove it to her.

Lowering his eyes to his mate that was now napping with her head in his lap, a small frown pulled at his lips as his thoughts changed direction and he began to shift through what he knew about inus and compared it to what he knew of Kagome. The thing he was noticing was there was very little overlap between the two, and he had to take a moment to consider when it was things went so wrong for her. He thought back to the clearing when he first saw her in her true form and the way she went straight to wanting to play after that rabbit was dead.

THAT was all puppy.

She told him she was three when she lost access to her mother, and then spent the better part of a year on her own before she was once again the presence of her father, and if he was a betting man, Kouga was positive that was where the over-protectiveness on Touga's part came from. However, that was where the problem lied. Inus should spend the first ten years not just with their mothers, but also in their dog form, and the fact Kagome did neither manifested in her lack of self-understanding. She likely didn't get the proper nutrition as an infant, which resulted in her stunted growth. If she didn't know how to change back to her humanoid form, it's because she's never done it on her own, which meant her aura has been suppressed through outside forces, and that would explain why she's half the size she should be in her true form.

Head tilting to the side, Kouga hummed in his throat. Maybe he had been quick to judge the situation back at the Western Palace when he called out Lord Touga. Quick to judge or not, however, that didn't change the fact there were plenty of things that were very concerning and plenty of things that needed attention.

Eyes slanting to the side when he heard the sound of paws, Kouga decided to lay down himself for a short time as his pack's wolves began to encircle the clearing he and his mate were in. Uncrossing his legs, Kagome once again adjusted her position so her muzzle was on Kouga's stomach instead of his legs, Kouga settled himself in the grass and closed his eyes. A short nap himself, and he would get back to figuring out the best way to help his mate learn without having to do it for her.

He did have an idea. He just wasn't sure how much she was going to like it.