Sesshomaru stood outside of the bathroom for at least ten minutes before his mate finally emerged, dressed in the same button down shirt that he had given her, with her damp towel from the shower, around her slender shoulders as she attempted to dry her thick dark hair.

She looked at him, once she seemed to realize that he was there and cocked her head to the side inquisitively as she stared at him. "Are you hungry?" He asked after a few moments of silence. His mate huffed at him and motioned for him to lead the way.

Either that or she was telling him to get the hell out of the room. He didn't really know which so he went with the first option since it seemed...well, less rude. "I hope that you like what I fixed, though it is a bit of a mixed meal." When she continued to be silent he sighed and wondered if he could maybe somehow coax her to speak so that he could learn her name.

Finally reaching the dining room, Sesshomaru stepped aside so that his mate could move to one of the seats at the small table. She picked the seat farthest from the head of the table, however was opposite of his own seat with all of the food and several drinks between them.

They would be able to look at each other, perhaps if she simply didn't decide to kick him the entire time she was seated and eating just for funsies.

It is a thought, though we are just happy that she hasn't broken something else over our head like before.

We were unmated and she was fighting for her virtue. Having something broken over our head is an understandable action. Much like the blow to our crotch and pelvis.

We still have questions about that incident. I'm certain that there is no way that our mate should have been able to lift one hundred and ten pounds of solid oak and swing it like a bat.

I'll get to that eventually. Sesshomaru thought as he watched his mate seat herself and begin to dig into the food without waiting on him as a female usually should in his family. But he chalked up her lack of knowledge about such customs to him not telling her as well as her being incredibly hungry and needing to nourish herself and their pup.

Sitting himself down, he noted that she was about to dig into the salad that he had made and looked at the two hand made dressings sitting there.

"One is plain buttermilk ranch and the other has a little bit of Dijon mustard mixed in it to give it a little bit of a kick. I happen to like both." He said and almost grinned as she picked up the one with the mustard in it and used half of it on the salad.

He said half because apparently his mate cared nothing for either calories, fats nor social graces and enjoyed drowning her greens. Once the salad in her bowl had been adequately mixed with the dressing, she took an experimental bite and abruptly made a choking sound that nearly had him letting his first bite of food going down the wrong pipe.

She frowned and looked at him funny before turning back to her salad again, eating another few bites and making similar sounds that nearly had him laughing at her expense.

"Silly woman, if you don't like it then hand it here and you can eat my salad. Just use the other dressing this time." He said, as he tried not to snicker as she handed him her salad as he pushed his own across the table and then watched as she repeated the process with the plain buttermilk and when she took an experimental bite.

This time she made no sound. Instead she simply pilfered the dressing bowl and set it on her side of the table and then glared at him like a little dragon guarding a piece of gold might.

Shaking his head in an effort to clear his amusement, he thought it best for the moment that he perhaps focus on his meal when he heard her speak again, this time saying only a few words to him. "You promised an explanation."

Looking up from his meal again, he saw her looking at him as she nibbled on a piece of the bacon that he had fixed just in case.

"Right. I will. But wouldn't you rather finish eating first?" He asked curiously. She merely gave him an expectant look causing him to set his silver down and push his plate away slightly. His appetite suddenly gone.

"Hn. Very well then. We'll start as close to the beginning of things as I can get. With the sudden decline in acceptable female demons being born each generation. This has been happening for several hundred years. About six hundred I think. A majority of the reason for the decline has to do with how they are raised, or treated. Back then females were raised and treated as treasures, but in the more modern times- males seem to have...how do I put it?"

"Lost their damn minds." She supplied causing him to glance at her.

"Yes something like that. You see with the modern times came more freedom, physical, emotional, and sexual for both genders. If a female was unhappy with things between herself and her male or mate- she simply went out and slept around in an effort to seek what she felt she needed. This of course caused problems since one of the most severe punishments is servitude of any kind that the male deems fit."

"And more often than not- a male would choose to humiliate the female in the same manner that she humiliated him, so to speak. So he makes her a whore or pleasure slave, despite being his female or mate. With this, new problems arose. Mainly death, psychotic breaks, unwanted pregnancy, maiming ect. Because of this...the number of females has dropped significantly from a nice hefty number to barely ten per generation. Not even females who have all male family members are exempt from this treatment."

"Because it has finally gotten so bad that males who randomly go into heat have been stepping outside of our race and snatching girls up off of the streets to use for rut. Those who survive are marked and bound to the one who used them, trapping them in a life of constant rape and abuse at not only the males hands, but ever other male that comes along. Mating, true mating offers some measure of protection, but depending on the character of the male youkai- such protection isn't always a definite."

"I am an inu demon. A Daiyoukai lord. I may have snatched you up off of the streets in an act of desperation due to my heat, but my beast chose you to be my mate. Unlike others of my kind, my kind, once they have marked their chosen mate- are not able to remove it or leave the female defenseless. I happen to respect the lives of others, and care for the well being of those who are under my protection. If that were not true- if I were anyone else, you would have longed for death by now. You would have been marked and bound in the same way that others are and there would be nothing that I could do to save you. Even if I wanted to."

"How do I know that your aren't lying?" She asked in a small voice that tugged at his heart strings. She sounded so young and frightened to him that he wanted to get up and walk over to her and wrap his arms around her, but feared for his physical health if he dared to do so since she would probably brain him with something.

Like the heavy gravy bowl sitting within her reach, he should remove that. Wait- he hadn't answered her question yet, he should maybe do both at the same time. Reaching out, he absently pulled the gravy bowl towards him as he spoke.

"Have you not seen the mark that I placed on you? It matches the birthmark on my forehead meaning that what we have is a true mating. If you were simply a pleasure slave or a whore to me- the mark would look different. It would be the mark of the male with something extra to show that you are bound. Not only that but the color would be different too. Instead of deep blue-violet, it would be green or red."

Seeing her sort of start to retreat into herself, Sesshomaru quickly asked what was wrong. Only to be met with silence again and sighed. It seemed that he and his mate simply weren't on the same page here.

He understood her distress, if in her place he'd be fairly distressed too. But he couldn't let it continue or the distress would cause problems for them both. Once he was sure that the gravy bowl was at a nice safe distance from her, he then stood up and left the room for a second and returned with a compact so that she could see her mark.

Kneeling beside her, he pushed his bangs back from his forehead so that she could see his birthmark and then handed her the compact and motioned for her to look at her own.

Deciding to follow his lead, but only because she really, really needed to see for herself- Kagome opened the compact and then moved her hair and the collar of her shirt aside and looked. Hard. There on the tender flesh of the juncture between her neck and shoulder, was a blue-violet crescent moon just like his own.

Sinking back in her chair, she dropped the compact onto the table and settled an arm over her eyes to hide them from view. She did not want him to see the relief she felt at knowing that their marks matched. That she wasn't his whore or pleasure slave.

"When a mated couple bears exact matching marks like we do...I've been told that the mating is as close to perfect as possible. Everyone whom has mated and bears exact matching marks, have been loved and cherished by their males until death took them both. The union is usually very blessed."

At this, his mate dropped her arm away from her eyes and looked at him as if he was insane before saying, "You took me for rut."

"Yes, I know."

"You basically raped my unconscious body."

"No mating starts out perfect, not even a true mating."

"Stop talking. Do you even realize that I'm pissed at you?"

"Yes. I know." He at least had the decency to look ashamed causing Kagome to scowl at him before she heaved a sigh of annoyance and then asked.

"So what now? We're mated, with a pup on the way-"

"I'm aware. And I wish to bond with you before we leave this bunker. Once we have gotten to know one another some, and we leave- I will take you home and explain the situation to your family."

She snorted, the sound was terribly unfeminine sounding. But Sesshomaru found himself wanting to hear her speak and make more of such sounds. He felt they were utterly charming before she seemed to break the spell with a well timed, "You better since they aren't going to welcome me home anymore."

He blinked his golden eyes at her before muttering, "Wha?"