Author's Note: Ask, and thou shalt receive. You can thank "snowXgem" for today's second update. Enjoy, eager reader!
Mina stared up at the skies. It wouldn't be long now before the full moon. Could she make it somewhere safe in time for her night as a human? She usually went back to her cabin, but what now? There were no landmarks to guide her back home.
But perhaps Sesshomaru had planned for this, too.
Looking to the skies, she found the brightest one. She had been faced to the south. There were many well-known human villages to the south. She remembered this because her home was built in the forests beyond the human civilizations.
She didn't have much time. Minako ran away from the bright star, moving as quickly as her legs would allow. The stinging in her lungs did not slow her down. If she stayed in one place, she may be hunted by the lustful males in the area. So long as she moved, she was safe.
And so she ran.
Masami couldn't quite describe what she was feeling. A mixture of remorse for sending an unarmed woman out during mating season, or fury for the fact that they had lied to her about her age. If she had known that Minako was a woman, she would have never allowed the hanyou to spend so much time with Sesshomaru. Especially not so close to mating season. But that was probably why they had lied. They knew how protective she was of her mate.
If they would just get the mating done with, already.
Sesshomaru did not trust Masami to send her cats out. And for good reason, as she had sent her cats to get rid of Minako in the first place. Not that he knew that. He could never know that. He was so furious already, she couldn't let him direct that anger toward her. Let him think that it was some horny demon at fault.
It wasn't like they could save her. The fastest cat under her power had taken her far away. By now, the weak little hanyou had probably been killed or claimed. As terrible as Masami felt about it, she couldn't be completely upset. After all, that got the other female out of the picture. A dead or mated hanyou was no threat to her relationship with Sesshomaru. Their arrangement was still in place.
Even if he wished to go out in search.
"Sesshomaru," she pleaded. "You mustn't go. We have mating to do! And what of me? What if some lustful demon takes me away and marks me?"
"You have survived many seasons," he responded, adorning his armor as he spoke. "Minako has not. I meant to protect her during her first. I cannot very well do that if she is not here."
"I will send all of my men out, Sesshomaru! The guards, the cooks, the gardeners—everyone! Just please stay—"
"Quite frankly, Masami, I do not trust your cats," he snapped. His eyes flashed red in anger. "For all your hundreds of men, they could not keep the only hanyou in the castle from disappearing."
"And neither could you," she breathed calmly.
He glared furiously at her. "Do not test my patience, woman."
Masami turned, crossing her arms. "This is what I meant about emotional attachments, Sesshomaru. The most important moment of our lives and you are allowing a half-breed to ruin it. If she cannot survive on her own, then she does not deserve to live; as if hanyous even deserve to breathe."
Sesshomaru's eyes went red and masami knew she was in trouble. He pulled his arm back, knuckles cracking and claws dripping with poison. She flinched, waiting for the attack but it did not come. She looked back to find her lord steadying his breathing.
"I am leaving, Masami. I will not return without my ward."
With that, he disappeared out the door. The idea that she had been abandoned for a half-breed made her sick. But he would return soon enough and then they would mate. Then she would have an equal say in things. Then the hanyou would be sent off somewhere "safe" and Sesshomaru would be all hers.
Hopefully.
Sesshomaru ran blindly through the forest, trying to catch Minako's scent. She couldn't be too far. Jaken had been left behind to care for Rin. Masami and her cats were nowhere in his thoughts. Just his companions.
Minako.
She trusted him. He knew that well enough and yet he had ignored her during the closest hours to the season, when he should have been paying the most attention. He had sworn to himself that he would protect the girl, and this is how things turned out? He had failed. He had let Masami distract him from keeping the hanyou safe and now she was alone in the wilderness. At least, he hoped she was alone. If some male had marked her...
Sesshomaru's eyes flashed red.
The hanyou was his, which meant that she was not to be marked. No one else could have her, even if Sesshomaru himself refused the girl. After all, he certainly couldn't mate with a half-breed.
Why had he allowed himself to go along with the arrangement? It could have been postponed. He could do that. Masami would complain, but she would not deny him. She had some sort of strange emotional attachment to him. Just like Minako. Except that Masami wasn't Minako.
That was the problem.
Mina had decided to stop running. She was growing tired and needed to rest. Just for a little while. She found a tree to curl up in and before she even realized it, she had fallen asleep. She dreamed of Sesshomaru, sitting beside her in the tree. Telling her that he did not mean it when he said that he did not care. Kissing her as he did before. Stroking her leg. It felt so real.
She suddenly jerked awake. The stroking did not stop. Shivers went through her body as she slowly looked down to meet the gaze of a giant rat. It stood on two feet, staring up at her with its arms extended. It pet her leg, and just glancing down, she knew what the male wanted.
The Season had begun.
Sesshomaru had caught Mina's scent. His heart jumped when he first smelled it, and he dashed off into the woods in the direction that it led. Although he had not picked up the scent of the bastard that had taken Mina, he did not care. So long as he found her, he did not care.
The trail led on in a rather uninterrupted path, which set Sesshomaru at ease. She had had the luck of not running into anything. He was grateful for that. Perhaps he could find her before she was injured. Before she had to face any demons. He just wanted the hanyou safe.
He cared for her. He did. She couldn't die without knowing that.
The trail suddenly veered off, and he knew that she had climbed a tree. A sudden sharp pain seered through his heart as the smell of blood hit him. Another demon. She had been found. It caught her in the tree. And there was blood. Was he too late? If he had moved a little faster, perhaps.
No, the Lord Sesshomaru did not do "if". She was still alive. This was not enough to kill her. The demon had dragged her off, no doubt to its pathetic little layer where he would mate with her. Or at least try.
There were so many demons in the forest. Even those that had mated before were a danger as females did not last very long out here. They were generally the weaker sex, and were killed sooner. And so each mating season, too many males went in search of a female.
And Minako would be easy prey.
She was weak, but her scent was so strong. It called to Sesshomaru, and his body answered. He had better self-control than the beasts of the forest, though. Her scent was intoxicating enough on any other day, but now. Now that her body was trying to appeal to the males around her, she couldn't even begin to understand how dangerous her scent was. And now he knew that she was somewhere out there, bleeding and in danger.
He worried for the girl's life.
The giant rat dragged Minako down from the tree, his claws digging into her legs and ripping at her skin. Her legs seemed to be on fire, and then numbness. She dropped to the ground, her legs still bleeding even if she couldn't move them. She tried to crawl away, but the demon reached down and swept her up off the forest floor. Overcome with a sudden fit of nausea, she stared up at the treetops as the leaves swayed in the oddest of ways.
Mina wasn't sure how far the demon had carried her, but she regained her senses just as a small cabin came into sight. It wasn't hers, of course. Her cabin was much prettier, whereas this thing looked as though it had been abandoned long ago. The lower demons didn't seem to have much going for them as far as standards.
Quite obvious by who they picked to mate with, i.e. the first female they encountered.
The rat managed to get the door open and set Minako down on a bed. The inside of the cabin didn't seem quite as awful as the outside. At least it was clean. Mina had feared that her innocence would be stolen in a place caked in feces, but this wasn't too bad as far as these things could go.
The bed was quite comfortable, in fact. There was a fireplace, which the rat was now setting up, and a poker beside it. Plain brown curtains hung over the windows. A shabby rug on the floor.
Minako could not let this happen. If she fought, things would probably go worse for her, but what if she could beat this thing? Just because she was weak did not mean that every other demon was strong. This was just some lowly rat demon. She could not let it take her innocence.
No, that was saved for Sesshomaru.