Sheumaru sat around the fire with her friends, eating at a fish InuYasha had skewered for her.

"Does anyone else feel happy?" She asked them.

"No." InuYasha said.

"Oh." She felt crestfallen.

"Why do you ask?" Kagome asked, picking at her bowl of rice.

"I don't know I just feel.. different." Sheumaru shrugged.

"Strange." Sango agreed.

"Let's go to a hot springs. I feel gross." Sheumaru decided now setting down the bare stick.

"Make up your mind on how you feel!"

InuYasha grumbled.

"Girls never make up their mind." Kagome pointed out, "and a hot springs sounds very nice."

Sango nodded, setting down her bare stick too, "Let's go."

They walked to the springs in relative silence, Sheumaru almost couldn't stop the skip in her step as they walked.

The three of them stripped and walked into the warm water, sighing contentedly as their sore muscles began to loosen.

"So what's the real reason you're all jittery?" Sango asked.

"I bet she's thinking about a certain someone." Kagome cooed. She was the only one who knew how she felt about a certain dog demon when Sheumaru was in heat.

Sheumaru felt her heart jump into her throat, "on.. nights like these I sometimes wonder...what it would have been like.." she trailed off not wanting to admit it.

"If you had went with him?" Kagome offered up. Sheumaru nodded and she suddenly felt very guilty about admitting that she had thought about leaving her friends and her new found brother for a boy.

A very handsome boy though, she caught herself thinking. Hells, she wasn't even in heat but the thought of him still made her blush so bad her face probably looked like red wine.

"Who is this certain someone you speak of, Kagome?" Sango asked, confused as she had never heard this bit of information before.

As Kagome began to explain to Sango what the deal was between Sheumaru and the other dog demon, to which Sango would blush and look at Sheumaru at times, the trees rustled, and with it a scent.

A scent she had only smelt once, but nearly dreamed about it every night in hopes of finding it next fall when mating season started again. In a sort of trance she reached for her clothes that rested on a nearby bush, and got out of the hot spring, changing in that same sort of trance.

"Sheumaru! I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, please come back into the water, I won't mention it again." Kagome pleased as she saw her friend start to leave, but Sheumaru wasn't paying attention.

All she cared about was that rich scent of his.

Sheumaru followed the smell, completely ignoring her friends cries, she would explain later and they would understand, she couldn't be this close to him and not see his face, at least one more time and then she'd be happy until fall.

Sheumaru suddenly realized that she hadn't even been this ecstatic over Riyouk, the love of her life, but that only made her more curious.

Finally she had found the source of the scent, deep within the forest, though she still managed to catch firelight from their camp. They were in a clearing, he was on one side and she was on the other. She wanted to walk to him but she didn't dare, she didn't know if she could restrain herself from jumping into his arms.

"I can almost feel you whimpering," he said in a husky tone, the tone, Kagome had told her, that drove every girl crazy. He sounded cocky, but she wasn't about to let him walk all over her.

"What do you want? It's another three months before fall at least." She growled.

"Now, now, my being here is for your health. I am actually glad you followed my scent, I was afraid you would discard me." He sounded sympathetic and almost nervous, how one could go from husky to a nervous mess, especially when that someone looked as good as he did, she had no idea.

"With a scent like yours anyone would've followed you." She grumbled, though by the look of satisfaction on his face, he had heard her.

"Enough of this back and forth. I have come to warn you, I'm afraid I don't have much time as I am trying to throw them off my kingdom's scent as well.."

"Who?" She asked.

"The demon panthers." He shivered, "Hells I hate cats."

"Who?"

"Ask Inuyasha, he knows, they're tracking down you specifically for something your father did, but anyone else that gets in their way they're not afraid to cut down."

"How do you know my brother? My father?" She asked,suspiciously.

"Your scent has traces of both of their scents on you, faint, covered by your very..alluring smell, but still there. I served under your father, he was a great king." He bowed.

Sheumaru found herself across the clearing in a blur, she stood before him, she picked up his head with the tip of her finger under his chin.

"None of that." She managed, though she knew he could hear her fast pacing heart. The man got up, and she suddenly realized that he was taller and much more attractive up close.

He was at least two heads taller than her, so she had to almost crane her neck to look at his features properly.

His long white hair tucked into a wrap so it hung in a long string down his back, his blue-grey eyes fierce and unnerving, his jaw cut have cut someone and of course, the dark gashes of purple on his cheeks.

"What is your name? Seeing as you know mine it is only fitting," she added.

"Jinoku." He said.

She leaned in to whisper in his ear, "and do you Jinoku, except that I am a halfbreed?"

Jinoku nodded, "I except you for who you are, I was never one to treat humans unfairly, that is why I served under your father."

"I am not ready to have children, I am helping Inuyasha collect the jewel shards, I have promised and cannot easily just throw that away. I will not ask you to wait for me." She bowed her head, her hand on his chest now.

"But I can and will, as long as I can visit you at least." He added, a slight smirk forming on his lips.

Sheumaru almost couldn't stop the smile, "You may, Jinoku."

He squeezed her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it, "I must go."

"Good bye." She nodded, and the dog demon was gone, and she was left in the meadow to herself, she walked giddily back to the campfire.

A:ITS BEEN FOREVER, BUT I FINALLY HAVE A CHAPTER OUT FOR YOU! Hope you enjoyed as always please leave a review. Bye bye now!