Once Again with Love

Thanks,

Cerulean Rose

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~ Mating…no… I definitely don’t want that. He hates humans,t cot could he be thinking of. ~ Kagome shivered in fear, fighting off tears.

Who knew what he would do when he returned, Sesshoumaru had always been a law unto himself, and in this more than ever he seemed to be determined to have his way, and unfortunately for her, his way seemed to require her.

~ But then I’m not exactly a human any more am I. ~ Kagome thought bitterly as she looked at her clawed hand, it was still as small as every. But the sharp pointed ends bearing a remarkable resembles to sharpened tines. Kagome lowered her hand and stood to walk to the large mirror that stood beside the dressing table, and took her first look at the new her.

Everything that had made her who she was… was gone. Kagome the college student, Kagome the daughter of Yuuke, and then…father. Kagome had always been told that she looked like her father, she was his spitting imaging and everyone knew she was his daughter.

~ After father died, I needed that, more than anything else…and now… ~ Kagome knew that important link to her past was gone now and would not return. Her hands covered her face and she fought not to cry. ~ Damn, that jewel. It didn’t have the right to do this, I was happy the way I was. ~

~ No, I won’t think like that. There has to be something positive about this. ~ Kagome forced herself to look at herself in the mirror again, and this time really see herself.

Long black hair with blue and silver highlights fell towards the floor. She ran her fingers thorough the long black length, catching the silver and blue highlights in her fingers. ~ My hair, it’s so soft, and at least the highlights are pretty. ~

Kagome looked her self up and down and blushed as what she saw, the night robe left little to the imagination. ~ Still I don’t look bad as a youkai, I could live with this. I like the markings on my face the slashes below my eyes are silver, while the slashes above are blue. They set off my hair pretty and make my eyes glow. ~

Kagome looked at her feet, claws toes so like Inuyasha’s.

~ I didn’t hate Inuyasha for being half youkai, I always told he would be all right, so… It will be all right for me to. ~ Kagome thought as she looked at herself, determination coloring her tone.

~ So enough of this self-pity. OK, let’s think about something else right now there nothing that I can do about it. Now about Sesshoumaru he’s stronger, more powerful since he put this necklace on me. So unless I want to be mat…Married, yeah, lets use married… I have to find a way out of this room, besides until I am out of this room there isn’t anything I can do to stop him. ~

She decided to ignore all thoughts of mating, especially mating with Sesshoumaru. ~ Why does this thing happen to me? As if I needed another hardheaded youkai suitor, it took me years of hammering at Koga’s head to get it through that I didn’t want to mate with him, that I wanted to be friends. ~

~ I can’t get out of here. ~ The massive interlaced oak doors that Sesshoumaru had left through was lock and the other door would not open, they both were way to heavy to force even with her new youkai strength.

The balcony had to be over 3 stories high and there was a sheer cliff below the wall supporting it, so no way out there and the only other door left had led to a bathing room.

Kagome throw herself onto the feather covered bed after searching the room for most of the afternoon.

~ I hate him, I really, really hate him. The overbearing conceited jerk. ~ Kagome thought as she laid among the pillows of Sesshoumaru’s large bed, the silk blanket covering her.

~ Oh… Arrogant bastard. Just wait I’ll get away from him. ~ As she leaned against the pillows, Kagome’s mind was filled with all the ways she would like to torture Sesshoumaru. Oil, yes boiling the bastard in oil, then tarring and feathering him maybe. Stupid jerk. Oh, honey and ants would be good, too.

~ Yeah, tie the jerk down and then slowly pour the honey over him… and let the ants come have lu Tho Those mean red kind. ~ Egotistical jerk, Kagome thought as a very realistic picture of a naked Sesshoumaru, whose muscles were covered in honey, flashed though her mind.

~ He is a jerk but he was also a very nicely built jerk. ~ Surprised, Kagome blinked and blushed before she flopped over and buried her face in the pillows. ~ Now where did that thought come from… ~

~ What am I thinking? Am I stupid? Sesshoumaru? He’s awful. He thinks he rules the world. ~

~ No, no, no , most definitely a no… ~ Horrified and surprise Kagome reprimanded herself, there was no way that she was going to let herself desire him, that she would even dream of thinking of Sesshoumaru as attractive.

OK, truthfully Sesshoumaru is one of the most beautiful youkai there is. But that holier than thou attitude of his coupled with his overwhelming conceit. He had hated Inuyasha because he was a hanyou, something Inuyasha couldn’t change.

~ Nice looking or not, the jerk would want to control my every move. He is definitely off limits. ~ Kagome sternly lectured herself.

~ I can just see it, he would make my life a living hell. I couldn’t go to the bath with out permission from His Royal Highness. ~ Kagome shuttered, at the very idea of having to ask for permission from Sesshoumaru to go to the bathroom.

He would never let her leave this castle, that is, if he ever let her out of this bedroom.

~ And I’m not going to eat with him either, so there. ~ Kagome decided as she childishly stuck her tongue out at the door. ~ I have more important things to worry about at the moment. ~

~ I have to find a way out of here, and quick. ~ Shippo would be in the village with Sango and Miroku. She smiled as she thought of him, oh, how she had missed him and desperately wanted to see him again.

~ Hmm, If I don’t get out of here I could never see him again. " Kagome growled shocking herself, her hand covered her mouth. ~ Did that come from me? ~

Kagome’s head turned to the door and she sat up as she heard a knock echo around the room, a second later the two large wooden doors were opened to admit four female youkai.

The first to enter was an elegant inu youkai whose had long silky blond hair that most likely reached her feet if it was loose. It was pulled up onto the top of her head and had been platted into hundreds of braids that hung down her back.

Kagome was surprised that sid nid not have a tail like Sesshoumaru, she had thought that all full inu youkai had tail, although she did have markings like Sesshoumaru but without the crescent moon on her forehead, she was tall, regal almost and her demeanor marked her as important.

The second youkai was a kitsune who was carrying a royal blue kimono with white flowers on it. Oh, cute she had red ears like Inuyasha, whose very tips where white. Her hair fell to her waist and she had a tail that brushed the floor as she walked.

Her tail and hair were a deep, a dark spun ruby color. She glowed in the sunlight and looked as if a spinner had taken rubies and spun them into her hair. Her markings were in the palest shades of rose and she had the gentlest looking blue eyes.

The last two youkai seemed to be twins, and had black hair that went to their knees. She didn’t know what type of youkai they were, the other two were beautiful these two had a gentile prettiness that spoke of a gentle nature. They quickly bowed to her and walked to the door beside the fireplace, where the bathing room was.

~ Huh, I suppose that they are the servants that Sesshoumaru said would come. They here to dress me for dinner. ~ Kagome thought as she forced herself to relax against the pillows. Inuyasha had always said to never let your enemies know that you fear them.

The kitsune youkai bowed and stood quietly behind the inu youkai.

Surprised, Abigeru could think of only one word to describe the girl. Delicate, the girl didn’t look as if she would even reach Sesshoumaru’s shoulders.

She was lovely little thing, smoldering blue eyes, long black hair with silver and blue highlights fell to her waist and she possessed round gentle curves, enough to temp any man. The air around the girl crackled with repressed anger.

~ Oh, this is going to be fun. Sesshoumaru will not tame this one easily. Hmm, he may be the one to bend… what am I thinking, the great Sesshoumaru-sama bending. ~ She almost laughed aloud at that thought coupled with the feathers that littered the room covering the girl, bed and floor.

It was quite obviously that the girl had thrown a temper tantrum after Sesshoumaru had left her confined to his suite of rooms.

" I am Abigeru, My Lady, head housekeeper of the Western Castle and a cousin of Lord Sesshoumaru. This is Eimi, your new chambermaid, we are here to dress you for dinner this evening. " Abigeru bowed slightly to her lady and indicated the kitsune who stood behind her.

"Lady, if you will please follow Eimi to the bath, she has your kimono for tonight. I have contacted a seamstress, she will be here for a fitting tomorrow to prepare your wardrobe."

A mulish expression came over Kagome’s face, as she thought that there was no way in hell that she was preparing for anything that had to do with Sesshoumaru, unless it was his funeral…. And then she planned to dance on his grave.

Kagome stayed were she was and cocked her head to the side in puzzlement, "Now why would I do that?"

~ It’s never easy is it. ~ Abigeru thought as she read the girls’ desire to be difficult thought from the stubborn expression on her face and the inflexible set of her body. ~ It would be best to do this alone. ~

"Eimi, help Ami-ria and Amita to prepare the bathing room for Lady Kagome’s bath." Abigeru ordered and motioned the Kitsune out of the room.

Eimi quickly left the room carrying the navy kimono, and considered herself lucky that she would not have to tell the Lady the certainty of her new life. The Lord would never allow the new Lady’s disagreement to his orders.

~ Hmm, how to begin ~

Abigeru took a deep breath. "My Lady…"

~ It’s not her fault that he’s a jerk. ~ Kagome thought guiltily of the trouble she was going to cause this woman tonight and interrupted Abigeru.

"Please call me Kagome. I sorry…but I will not be going to dinner with Sesshoumaru tonight or any other night."

Kagome leaned forward, and watched as a worried Abigeru clutched her hands together in front of her.

"My Lady…Kagome…" She started again as Kagome started to argue with her, "Please Kagome, let me finish. If you are not ready when My Lord comes for dinner…. The results…I do not believe that you will like the results."

"What can he do? Give me another spanking? I will not be afraid of him." Resolution colored the girl’s tone and could be smelt in the air surrounding her.

Abigeru would have thought that Sesshoumaru would have had more sense than that. After all, he had dealt with some of the most powerful and beautiful demon women in the world. One did not abuse a potential claimed mate.

They had started throwing themselves at him before he had reached full adulthood. He had even become well known for being able to seduce the most inflexible of matron if he wanted something from them.

Abigeru watched as the girls’ nose turned up a sure sign that Kagome had decided to attempt to ignore her. Still she had to make her understand that there would be difficulty if she defied Sesshoumaru over so simple a thing.

Abigeru sit down beside Kagome, the girl definitely need to understand her circumstances here, this was going to be difficulty, because she did feel sorry for the girl. "We’ll put that aside for now. Do you have any questions you would like answered about your circumstances here?"

Kagome looked at Abigeru from under her bangs and shook her head up and down. She did have questions.

"He said……"

She cleared her throat, pulled her knees up against her chest and started again, "He said… that… we… are mated?"

Abigeru could see the fear in her eyes. "Hmmm, Kagome, you have a mating mark on you neck, who gave it to you?"

Tears gathered in Kagome’s eyes, "Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru half brother."

Abigeru eyebrow rose in surprises at that, she hadn’t seen her cousin, Inuyasha since he was a child. She hadn’t even known that Inuyasha had marked anyone.

"Inuyasha… I haven’t heard that name for over fifty years. Not since Sesshoumaru sent Inuyasha and Keako away for their protection."

"Protection," Kagome spat out vehemently, " How did he protect them, Inuyasha mother died when he was five, Keako’s family tossed him out the day of her funeral and he lived in the forest by himself after that. "

Sadly, Abigeru looked at the angry woman beside her, " He tried, Kagome, he really did try. He gave Inuyasha mother’s clan a yearly siphon for their care and sent warriors to see her to her fathers’ house for their protection."

"But why seen them away, Inuyasha rarely talked about his life before that, but once he told me that when he was young, Sesshoumaru and he were friends, if not really brothers. He never understood what happened. "

With tears in her eyes, Abigeru stood and walked to the balcony doors leaning on them for support. " He had to send them away, Kagome, Sesshoumaru mother’s family was out to kill them after their Sesshoumaru’s and Inuyasha’s fathers death. They blamed Toga for Sesshomaru’s mother, Sesako’s death, he family was too weak to attack him, so they waited until after his death to go after his second son and his wife. "

"But …"

"No, Kagome, Sesshoumaru tried to stop them but was weak at that time, he was young to become a Lord of a Land less than two hundred and hadn’t come into his full power. If not for his father’s army loyalty, Sesshoumaru probable could not have survived to keep the Western Lands. "

Abigeru signed and sat back down on the bed. "We’ve gotten of the subject. You bear a mark but the mating was not consummated, yes?"

Embarrassed, Kagome looked at everything but her. "He wanted to wait until Naraku was gone, and by then it was to late. He died with Naraku…. I’m not completely innocent… we learned to pleased each other, we just never went all the way together. But Sesshoumaru says that the mark gives me to him, that it makes me his property."

"I’m sorry to say that it does. It’s a Lord’s law to protect bloodlines and inherence. If a widowed mate of younger brother of the Lord would later mate with someone outside of the clan, and if anything happens to the pups from her first mating or there were none, the pups from the second could inherent if the Lord has no children of his own. He can keep you or give you to another clan member, he chose to keep you."

"I won’t be owned!"

Abigeru rolled her eyes at the sputtering girl, "Yes, well. We can deal with that later. But you’re also worried about tonight aren’t you. He’ll give you time, Kagome, inu youkai tradition calls for your first mating to be during your first heat, he will mark you then."

She sniffed the air delicately, " I would say that you have two to four weeks, until then you suppose to be getting to know each other and learning to live together."

"Oh, my you can tell that." Kagome ask in panic. "Besides so far the only one that is getting to know or learning to live with anyone is me. He spanked me, Abigeru like I was a miss-behaving two year old, and gave me these rules while he did it."

Kagome could tell Abigeru wanted to know what rules from the expression on her face.

"He said that I belonged to him and that he could do any thing he wanted to with me. I won’t let him, Abigeru. I mean it! Then he told me that I was to do what he said as soon as he said it, I an adult, you know, not a child I can make my own decisions. Then he said that this collar he put on me, wouldn’t let me uses my youkai or miko powers on him, and fortunately for him it does or….. "

The outraged look on Kagome’s face as she grabbed the necklace almost sent Abigeru into a fit of laughter. "Give him a chance Kagome, just remember that he’s not a human male. He’s an inu youkai male and has been taught to treat a female in a certain way. But you’re a smart girl, work to change him, and I know he can change for the better. I believe you know Rin, his human ward, well look at how he’s changed since he meeting her, once he would have killed her as soon as look at her. But look at him now, he's adopted her."

"I’m still not going to have dinner with him." Kagome childishly insisted.

"Kagome… if you're not ready when he gets here, what he’ll most likely do is bathe and then dress you himself."

Kagome quickly scrabbled off the bed, horrified at the very idea of that indignation she knew that he would make it as humiliating as possible, she briskly marched to the door to the bath.

"You know I believe that I have changed my mind, a bath would be nice."

There was no way in hell, that he was giving her a bath. Kagome shuttered at the very idea.

Kagome sat on the stool in front of the dressing table, and watched in the large piece of polished mirror that was mounted on the wall behind it, as Eimi finished weaving several blue and white ribbons thought her hair, even she had to say that she looked beautiful.

"This way, Kagome." Kagome had had mixed feeling about Abigeru and Eimi but had decided that she like them, they had both been very nice and tried to put her at ease. But she also knew that neither of them would dream of helping her escape.

When Abigeru and Kagome had enter the bathing room, Abigeru had ordered Ami-ria and Amita to clean and prepare the outer room while she and Eimi had helped Kagome with her bath and toilette.

It was obvious that they had been busy as Abigeru and Eimi had dressed Kagome. She signed, as she walked into the bedroom, surprised that in less that two hours the room had been thoroughly cleaned and now sparkled in the candlelight.

All the feathers had been cleaned away, the thrown items had been picked up, and the bed made with the pillows stacked neatly against the large ornate headboard.

Yes, Kagome could see that they had been busy little bees.

They had lit a fire in the fireplace, and created a sitting area of pillows with a low table placed before it. The table was set for two.

… An intimate dinner for two.

 In the next chapter