She looked out onto the glossy, blue-black surface of the river; the only part of it that did bear the blue-black colouring was the part on which the moon's reflection had shone, a small white dot upon the water's surface.

As she sat between his lean, long legs, one of his arms over her shoulder and the other around her waist, her head on his chest and his hair on her arm, both of them completely naked, she turned her attention from the water and looked up at his face. The light of the moon, so soft, so beautiful and bright, made his pale skin glow in an almost hauntingly beautiful way. He looked so ethereal and perfect and amazingly handsome. This male whom she stared at, who held her in his arms, was absolutely hers for all eternity.

Her hand went to her shoulder, where only an hour before he had bitten her and marked her as his, when he had made her his mate. It was still slightly tender the touch, but at least it did not hurt as much as it had at first. The blood that had rolled down her back and chest had since been cleaned; that was how they had come to sit at the edge of this river. They had gone to clean themselves up, remove the blood from their bodies and the dirt from the floor of the room. The river was only about a stone's throw from the inn, anyone one of its patrons could look out from their room and see the two newly mated lovers in all their naked glory, but they did not care, all that mattered was the two of them, together, sharing in that lovely little moment.

She felt his lips on her shoulder then, kissing the mark he had placed upon her skin, the mark that she was sure was still a very bright red.

"Mine." He growled into her ear, the possessive tone vibrating in his throat.

She twisted around in his arms, coming around to face him as she positioned herself with her legs around his waist; straddling him. Her hands rested on his head, her fingers tangling in his hair as she titled his head backwards. She rubbed her nose against her mark and inhaled his scent, autumn, and ran her tongue along his shoulder and up the side of his neck to his cheek.

"Mine." She growled in his ear, just as possessively as he had said his own statement.

His arms came around her waist and before she knew it she was on her back on the grass, Sesshomaru hovering over her and staring into her green eyes, nestled comfortably between her thighs.

"Ready to ravish me again?" She asked with a smirk, raising her head up off of the ground and planting a kiss on his lips.

As their tongues danced his hands slid up her waist and over her breasts, going to her shoulders and onto her arms, pushing them up above her head. He broke their lips apart and once again stared into her green eyes. There was something about the way he was looking at he, it was different from all the other times he had stared into her eyes, the emotion there was almost completely different. His silver hair cascading over his shoulders, pooling at the sides of her head and mixing with her jet-black locks.

"We shall do that soon enough." He said; his voice different as well.

"Wha-" She was cut off by his lips on her own.

This kiss was different from all the others; it was slow, gentle, soft, passionate, yes...but it still felt different from all the others even if it was pretty much the same. It was like something had changed in him since they had mated.

"Sesshomaru?" She asked once their lips had parted, slightly worried now.

He only remained silent, rubbing the tip of his nose against her own, her cheek, her forehead, her chin, while he kept his eyes closed. She felt his breath against her neck, heard them leaving his chest in shudders. He was just silent. And it wasn't like silence wasn't a common thing with them but this silence, was like everything else, different, as if it were filled with things that needed to be said, needed to be heard.

"You are unlike any female I have ever encountered, Mayuri."

The words left his lips.

He had spent the last hour, sitting by this river's edge, thinking about how he had ended up there; not just how he had literally gotten to the river, but the events that took place, and culminated in him being mated to this beautiful woman who lied beneath him; a woman so unique and unbelievable, part of him felt like at any moment he would awaken from a dream. The journey he had taken, to find himself bound to one such as her for all eternity, seemed almost surreal.

For one, she had despised him so completely upon their first meeting, found him so loathsome and perverted...and now she loved him unconditionally. How could one person go from one extreme emotion to another in such a seamless way. It seemed as if her earlier emotions were simply a distant memory in her mind, which in fact they should have been by now he supposed; they had meet quite a few months prior to this moment. He himself had gone from lust to love without even realising it himself; from pure carnal desire to an actual emotional attachment to another living being and a damn strong one at that.

There had only been three people who could have possibly stood in the way of this happening; Kohana, Yuuta and Rin and they had all accepted the relationship between him and Mayuri without even the slightest of second thoughts.

Sesshomaru was in no way having second thoughts about having mated Mayuri, he was simply awed by the journey they had taken and what it had led to; the greatest moment of his hundreds of years of life.

"Sesshomaru?" He heard her voice, worry think in her tone.

He opened his eyes, slowly, taking in her face milimetre by milimetre. The worry he had heard in her voice was he could now see clearly in his eyes. He had worried her. How foolish of him to allow his thoughts, his actions, to stir such an emotion in her when it was such an unnecessary emotion at the moment. He removed his fingers from around her left wrist and brought his palm to rest on her cheek, his fingers in her hair and his thumb on her pink lips.

"I love you." He whispered to her.

A small smile crept across her face as the worry slowly vanished from her eyes. He felt her hand on the back of his, pressing it closer to her face as she turned her head, and placed a kiss on his open palm as she closed her eyes.

"I love you too," she whispered "What were you thinking?" She rubbed her nose against his palm, eyes still closed.

He kissed her cheek, her skin turned red once his lips were removed from it.

"About how beautiful you are. How wonderful it is to have you. How unreal this all has been, even now." He said slowly.

She moaned.

"Like if all the time we've spent together has been nothing but a delightful dream?" She asked.

He nodded.

"Exactly like that." He told her.

She turned her face away from his palm and opened her eyes, staring right up at him, into his amber orbs.

"I was thinking the same thing, not too long ago." She admitted.

His brow raised in piqued curiosity.

"And your thoughts now?" He asked.

"That I love you more than I could possibly comprehend," Her palm came to rest on his cheek "That even though this all seems so unbelievable, its undoubtedly real. That hundreds, thousands, millions of years from now I'll still be just as happy as I am right now in this very moment. That even though you seem unable to understand what has happened here, it doesn't change the fact that you love me."

"Mmm. I could say the very same for you." He rubbed his nose against her cheek, eyes closed.

"I know." She said, eyes closed as well as he continued to caress her cheek.

She giggled.

"I found you to be such the arrogant bastard at first." She said with a smile.

Sesshomaru withdrew his nose from her cheek, pulling back to look into her face.

"And now?" He asked, curiosity piqued once again.

She giggled then bit her lip.

"Still think you're an arrogant bastard," She got up on her elbows and licked the tip of his nose "But you're my arrogant bastard now."

"Mmm." Was his only response.

His hand slid down her arm and her face, over her breasts and her rib cage to her waist where he held her. In the blink of an eye he had her turned over on all fours and had himself positioned behind her, his erection pressing against her behind.

"I do believe I owe you a ravishing."

A/N; This is the last chapter, later this week, hopefully Friday, the epilogue will be posted. It shall set up the plot for the sequel, the name of which, still will not be revealed. You have to wait until the epilogue has been posted :P