In His Arms

All previous disclaimers apply.

“How fares the human, my beautiful love?” A handsome male inu-yokai slipped into the darkened room where his mate, a sly and beautiful kitsune, cared for the human that their lord had brought with him to the palace after a night away. The kitsune waited a beat, leaning over quite farther than she had to to place a cool compress to the miko’s warm forehead. She waited until she heard her mate swallow harshly and laughed from deep in her throat at the effect she was still able to have on him.

Miyuki smiled as she straightened and turned to look into her mate’s eyes. She had been nothing more than a common thief when Paru, her handsome mate, had found her. Rather, when she had found him. After an intense battle with some very well-armed villagers she had found him lying half dead at the bank of a river. She had always had a knack for healing, despite her chosen profession and had fallen in love with his handsome face as she nursed him carefully back to health. He told her when he woke that he had fallen in love with her voice as she tended to him. He was Paru, the captain of Lord Sesshomaru’s guard and leader of his troops, and he loved her desperately. He asked that she return with him to the West and the Lord’s castle city. She had agreed, more than a little nervous to be around none but inu-yokai.

At first, life within the capital city of the Western lands had been hard. None of the inu-yokai wanted a kitsune in their city. Of course, they did not say this to Paru. He was the captain of the guard. It was more behind Miyuki’s back that they whispered when they knew she could hear them, slowly tearing down her confidence. The only thing that kept her sane was the intense love she felt for her mate. For him she would do anything, even live in a city for all of time where she wasn’t wanted. She had proven herself when the capital had been attacked and she had saved many of the higher up lords and ladies that had been opposing her presence in the capital city with no words of hate and simple healing spells to get rid of most of their small hurts. After that day, and when she was able to heal a deadly wound to Lord Sesshomaru himself, she was accepted as part of life in the capital. The only creature not an inu-yokai accepted as part of life in the capital. She had proven herself again and again, always in the heat of battle or in the houses of healing. Her honorary rank matched her mate’s within a short period of time. Lord Sesshomaru trusted her with his life as much as he trusted Paru.

It was why Lord Sesshomaru had entrusted her with the life of the strange human woman he had returned with. She was a miko, a powerful one. And Lord Sesshomaru wanted her alive. Miyuki couldn’t fathom why, but it was not her job to ask questions. It was her job to heal the human. So she did.

“She heals well, though I am not prepared to allow her to awaken quite yet. She could open her healing wounds in her panic when she first wakes.”

“Panic? Why should she panic?” Paru wrapped his arms around his mate’s waist from behind, pulling her flush up against him, displaying to her his obvious want for her, and sucked on her neck. She pulled away from him quickly. More than a hundred years spent with her love and still they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other.

“Not here, love. There is another in the room.”

“She is drugged,” Paru advanced on her again, “She would not realize.”

“It is not morally something I am willing to do,” Miyuki laughed, quickly dodging his wandering hands and facing off with him from the opposite side of the futon. She knelt next to her charge, checked her bandages and purposefully ignored her very frustrated mate.

“Miyuki,” his voice took on a purposefully young edge, “We haven’t mated for so long. You’re always here with the miko. I understood when she hovered between life and death, but now there is no fear for her life. I need you, my love.”

“Anticipation makes the pleasure greater, dear heart. You can wait until this evening when we retire to our quarters.” Miyuki forced herself to say the words to her mate, despite how much she, too, missed mating with him. She stood and walked to him. Her only move was to place a quick, chaste kiss to his lips.

“You are evil, my mate,” he groaned.

“Would you have me any other way?” Her smile was pained as she looked up into his eyes and he knew she was fighting to keep herself in control as well.

“No,” he consented, “Now, why would she panic?” He reached for her again, she pulled away, and he raised his hands, a smile of defeat on his face.

“You are a powerful miko. The lord of the Western lands has almost killed you. You know this. You begin to come awake again and again only to be drugged again and again. You know this as well. When you finally do wake, you wake in a room with a demon hovering over you in the palace of a demon in a city of demons. Are you calm or do you panic?”

“Point taken.” Paru nodded in appreciation of her logic. Most demons could fight as well as they dared to train, but simple logic escaped them.

“Paru, my love, what is so special about this human that Lord Sesshomaru keeps her alive and has her nursed back to health?” Miyuki dared to ask the question. Her mate was the confidante and closest friend, if you could say that Lord Sesshomaru had any friends, to their lord.

“She is his newest slave, from what he’s told me,” Paru frowned, staring down at the young woman, “Inuyasha’s bitch.”

“Inuyasha? Lord Sesshomaru’s hanyou half brother?”

“Yes. Lord Sesshomaru found her alone in the woods. She told him that Inuyasha and his traveling company, excluding herself, all disappeared on the night of the last full moon. She pledged her life and loyalty to him.”

“After he had nearly killed her,” Miyuki said, no anger, merely stating a fact. Paru nodded in agreement. The answer she had given him was not the answer she had wanted, and he knew it. They had no secrets and if she asked, he would give her the answer he knew she had been searching for, but he rather hoped she would employ a different means to get her answers than simply asking him. He wasn’t disappointed.

“Why do you think he keeps her?” Miyuki plastered herself against him and wrapped a leg around his hip.

“You will not use the prospect of mating to get information out of me, female,” he growled playfully.

“Won’t I?” she murmured, pressing her lower body harshly to his and biting back her own moan, “Why do you really think he keeps her, my love?”

“Sesshomaru has always had a fascination with his brother’s bitch. He would not admit it, but I have seen the lust in his eyes when he speaks of her. For the short term, I think perhaps he might want to couple with her. His feral side recognizes her power. It knows that she would almost make the perfect mate. Strong, healthy, and of breeding age, with a mothering instinct good for bearing children. More powerful than himself in some ways. Dependent upon his strength in others should she remain here in the capital and in his presence and completely beautiful. If she were not human, she would make the perfect mate and he knows it. I think perhaps his feral side may even want to mate her. It seems the fascination the lords of the Western lands feel for humans is hereditary.”
“A human? A miko no less?” Miyuki gasped, half from the shock of his words, half from her desire.

“Yes,” Paru moaned, grinding against her.

“I think that she could be good for him. Obviously none of the inu bitches entice him and he will need to provide an heir one of these days. The miko’s power combined with his strength could produce some very powerful children indeed. If only he could move past his hatred of humans. He is improving, taking in Young Mistress Rin and all, but there is such a long way to go before he’ll admit his deepest desire and mate a human. How can he justify the hatred of his brother if he produces children exactly like him?” Miyuki allowed Paru to pick her up and carry her into the adjoining room. She worked quickly and skillfully to undo his kimono.

“Therein lies the problem. Though I think as well that the miko would be the perfect mate for our lord,” Paru gasped as she held his pleasure in her hand. He pulled up her excuse for clothing to reveal her in all of her glory to him.

“Maybe we should help the relationship along.” Miyuki moaned as he pushed her against the wall and held her there.

“Yes. We will,” Paru agreed on a growl as he positioned himself and joined with his mate. She screamed with fulfillment as he entered her, “We will,” Paru promised on a moan just before they both stopped thinking and surrendered themselves to their passion.