"What in the world am I doing?" She thought, her mind reeling from the insane position she was currently in. Her foot tapped the cold floor in overflowing agitation. She shifted her eyes, hoping none of the servants would see her entering her master's room as she was. She shimmered in a pearl white silk yukata, loosely tied, rather provocative. Her hair shimmered like midnight quartz and hung loosely, folding over her clavicles and resting just under her shoulder blades. Since two nights before, after Lord Sesshoumaru had informed her that she would be accompanying him to the Summer Solstice, he was avoiding her yet again, even denying her entrance to his room despite his original vow to her. For the last couple of days she had reluctantly submitted to his requests to leave him be, but then she remembered the bath house. He had seen her unclothed and hadn't regarded her the same since. While she initially felt ashamed, thinking his avoidance was his disgust with her human body, she decided to make a disciplined decision to silence it. If that really were the case, he would make it known in a matter of moments, for she was going to attempt to continue what he had discontinued six days ago. She wanted to know the extent of his feelings for her.

Knocking her out of her stupor, she heard his voice ricochet from the interior of his chambers, granting her entrance. Her heart began to pound audibly, she could feel it throb in her throat and her face turned red hot. "Not now. Not now," she screamed in her mind, "Just breathe, you can do this." Rin's shaking hand finally gripped the door knob and she pushed it open.


Sesshoumaru read and re-read the egg-shell-white embossed letter from his dear loving mother. She had such poor tastes. While he had declined her offer on behalf of Rin's safety, she still insisted, with dull threats and the desire of the council, that he bring Rin as his companion. It was obvious that she was coaxing him to agree to her original stipulation, for, if he brought Rin just to bring her, he would make the clan look weak to the surrounding countries. His mother was bringing the "inevitable fork in the road" to him, sooner it would seem.

If debating between dirtying his hands with Rin's blood or inciting war wasn't enough… His eyes flew to the other letter he had received earlier that day, the proposal reply from Kohaku. It stated that the boy would politely like to consider the offer and pay a visit to Rin in a week's time. The day after the Summer Solstice. He had already sealed an agreement, allowing Kohaku to visit the castle along with Sango and Kagome, prior to the arrival of his mother's letter. His choices were limited. He could either take Rin, refuse to contest against her, and politically disgruntle his clan. Or he could take her, contest against her, and have to indulge the curiosities of the castle, Kohaku, and his companions, as to why his very injured ward no longer wished to be married. How bad she would look after his claws had ripped into her, he refused to consider.

Sesshoumaru realized he hadn't seen Rin since he told her about the Summer Solstice and her role in it. She was to be quiet, proper, and look as adequate as she possibly could to a room full of daiyoukai. He concluded that she wouldn't be able to impress them, but he also wouldn't settle for anything less than her best. Just as he began to examine his alternatives once more, he caught a familiar scent tip-toeing down the hallway.

"Again?" He questioned.

He sighed as he closed the folder. Persistence was the one trait of Rin's personality that he willed to disappear for awhile. He needed to remove emotions, and the cause of them, while he was making critical decisions such as these. And even he recognized, by this time, that she was the sole reason why he had yet to make one. His only choice was to refuse her.

"Lord Sesshoumaru…" he heard an all-too-familiar voice call sheepishly, "… I know you haven't been wanting to see me. But please, I would greatly appreciate you giving me your time for just a moment. It's important."

He rubbed his temples in exasperation. Perhaps if he allowed her in his chambers for just a moment, it would be enough to satiate her desire to see him for the next couple of days. Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered from the door back to folder. What a nuisance. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the arm of the sofa, of which he seemed to always retire.

"You can come in, Rin," his tone saturated with irritation.

Sesshoumarus eyes suddenly shot open, his nose had caught a shift in her scent. He turned his face towards the door as the girl opened it slowly, her intimidation even more recognizable in her scent than usual. But that wasn't the main pheremone that he had identified. She smelled as if she were in heat. Her face peeked around the door first and their eyes met. His bewilderment was laced into his intense stare. But she still daintily, courageously, shuffled around the protection of the door, her eyes lowering to the floor as her form became within view of him.

"Rin," his voice echoed the room with decibels of warning. She jerked a bit.

"Whatever you are doing, stop. Go back to your room."

She looked up and noticed his controlled gaze. He wasn't wavering from his demeanor. But he did seem… agitated.

"My Lord," she looked at him and begged, "Please don't make me leave."

He turned his face towards the ceiling and closed his eyes, regaining composure from her unusual entrance, "What do you want? I don't have time for foolishness."

Sesshoumaru could hear her getting closer to him. He was hoping that she wasn't doing what he thought she was. She had no idea how many lines she was crossing.

He opened his eyes to see her standing, looking down over him.

"Do you intend to not answer me?" He scowled at her. The look on her face, her body language, it was all calling for him.

He watched as her lips formed the words, "I want you."

Sesshoumaru stood and took an authoritative stance before her. The demon in him raged at the sound of those words with the same sinful passion it did in the bath house. Rin was too innocent. Too innocent to know the gravity of her adolescent desires, too sheltered to know what it meant to engage in them with a demon.

"Get out," he commanded.

What she wanted was something he couldn't offer her. Compassion, tenderness, and love while mating was something that was unique and specific to human nature. For demons, it was something much more innate, much more dangerous.

She looked down, hesitating to move towards the door. His eyes narrowed. Defiance?

"Get out, NOW," his voice was an icy whisper, the manifestation of his anger.

"Y-yes, my Lord," her soft voice quivered. Her scent became less heated, to his satisfaction.

"But may I ask you a question before I leave? I just want an honest answer," she looked up with truly curious eyes.

"What?" Sesshoumaru refrained from denying her.

"Am I... disgusting to you?" She asked, bravely shedding the loosely tied, silk yukata. It didn't come without overwhelming embarrassment.


Sesshoumaru suddenly felt fire in his veins once more. He could feel his self-control rapidly draining as his eyes ravaged Rin's exposed body.

She wanted him to take advantage of her. She was giving herself to him. He had the right.

His deplorable thoughts and desires seduced his inhibitions as he, once again, was granted access to her wondrous stature. It was only a second of lost conscience, only a second of too much, but it was enough.

The string snapped. Sesshoumaru reached out and took hold of her.


Rin wondered if this was too much to ask. She had given it her best shot. They both knew she wasn't skilled in seduction but she wanted to know if her body was even worth trying to be. The question she had just asked him was innocent in intention, for she had already been rejected, or so she had thought. In her mind, Sesshoumaru had no inner demons to conflict with. To her, he was calm and complacent by nature; supernaturally gifted with the ability to conform with what he thought was ideal in any situation. She had believed that with all of her faith in him.

Until she saw his eyes glow with heated passion.

Until he aggressively bound her wrists with his perilous hands.

Until he forced her roughly onto the cold hard floor.

"L-Lord Sesshoumaru?!" She squealed, terrified as his burning red eyes took in every ounce of her. They finally made their way back up to her face. And then he did something she had never seen before. Something that she was deathly afraid of.

He smiled. Wickedly. At her.

Sesshoumaru's face lowered towards Rin's, his lustrous hair falling all over her body, and he brushed his tongue, ever so slightly, over the curve of her cheek bone. Her horrified reaction sent shivers of pleasure down his frame.

"This is what you wanted, wasn't it?" He growled at her, "Do you think you can keep luring me without consequence?"

"Lord Sesshoumaru… Please, I… I don't," Rin struggled to lift her face away from his, to no avail.

"Impudent girl," he breathed with seductive prowess into her ear. He tasted the pleasures of her skin as his trailing lips molested her neck. Rin squeaked in surprise. Foreign sensations struck her from all sides. His clothed body took its all-fours stance between her legs and she could feel his thighs pressed against hers. She didn't understand him, she didn't understand this.

"I didn't know what I was doing," she cried, "Please stop- I'm so scared… Lord Sesshoumaru!"

He eventually released her arms from under he arched back, but remained on top of her. She quickly drew her arms over her breasts and buried her face in her hands. Then she heard him demand,

"Flip over."

The frigid girl began to shake. He wasn't done? What her lord was doing was so much different from the night when he had kissed her. His touch now paralyzed her with fear. But she obediently turned over, her chest now experiencing the cool sensation of the marble floor. She felt the tie of her lord's yukata brush her back; he was undressing. Rin began to sob into the floor in fear-filled confusion, her hair strewn out under her.

Sesshoumaru sneered at the view before him. His pleasure derived from the utter horror of his prey. One hand roughly pulled her closer to position from her delicate shoulders, while the other lifted her waist to meet his.

That's when he noticed the horrid scars beneath him.

Gashes of discolored skin as thick as his swords impressed along the length of her backside. The markings from the wolves that had killed her years ago. His senses suddenly returned as the weight of the situation showed itself through these marks.

It was eight years later, and now he was the wolf.

Sesshoumaru eased the trembling girl to the ground as she still sobbed uncontrollably on the floor. Currently unaffected, he retrieved his yukata and clothed himself before returning his gaze to her.

"Rin," he spoke, and saw her jerk from the sound of his voice. Sesshoumaru was quite dissatisfied with that reaction.

Rin stopped crying but she couldn't look at him. She felt him wrap her back in her robe before lifting her from the ground. It was when he started to carry her that she was finally able to raise her eyes to his face. He didn't look at her, but he spoke,

"Rin you mustn't toy with these things," his tone was full of unusual sorrow, "I know I may conceal it well, but there is only so much of this that I can take."

Her eyes widened as she grasped the difference between him now, and him then. She also now understood that her lord did, in fact, have limits, and what had happened was a result of them shattering. She made no reply but held onto his clothed chest.

He walked her over to his bed as he had done so innocently just two weeks before. Before anything had changed. He laid her down, and to her surprise, he joined her. His arms wrapped over her frail form and he held her with the tenderness he had shown her days ago.

They shared the moment in complete silence before he finally whispered, "Rin, please forgive me."

Rin almost didn't process the words he had said to her. Her lord was never remorseful, and would never have placed himself in a position lower than anyone else. What she heard now was even more of a surprise than what he had done moments ago. She turned to face him.

"Please don't avoid me anymore," she requested, taking advantage of the situation, "What happened tonight is something I'm not used to, it's a side of you that I don't understand. But…"

Her gaze grew demanding, "I want to understand it. I want to know you."

Sesshoumaru countered with his authority, "I won't allow it. You shouldn't learn these things from someone who can kill you by fragile accident. And the things you want to know of me are things that you shouldn't."

"But… I trust you," She looked away to gather her thoughts, only to return her eyes to his, "Teach me what it is you want and I will tell you when I grow uncomfortable with your advances."

Sesshoumaru couldn't handle this woman. Moments ago he had caused her to become frail, hopelessly crying on the floor, only to have her pursuing him yet again. Humans were strangely curious creatures. Was this what his father and that mortal did as well? Were they both so drawn to one another, that they had to deny certain instincts to be together? These were things even he didn't understand.

They broke the laws of nature.

"Rin," he said in a conceding tone, attracting her full attention, "You realize that in a matter of weeks you will never see me again?"

She didn't avert her gaze, but tears welled up once more.

"I know," she breathed, "But I don't care."


Hmmm... Sesshoumaru has finally given in?! What is to come on the eves of the Summer Solstice?

Thanks for your continued support guys! I read and consider every review! :)

Also, this will be the last chapter for the week. I have to concentrate on work, and so I'm limiting my writing. Sorry! I will be back later in the week or next weekend to update