Arranged

Understanding what she meant and where the fear had come from, he shook his head once. "No. Spiders do not typically mate at all. They beget their young and kill the mother, or the father, whichever the case may be."

Thank God, she thought relief filling her. It had been horrible to be trapped with him in the living and she couldn't begin to imagine how much worse it would have been after death. Shaking her head to clear them of such depressing thoughts, Kagome focused once more on the man across from her. "So you weren't mated. Why did you marry her?"

His beast was pleased with the relief coming off her in waves; minor annoyance formed in Sesshoumaru's mind as he tried to decipher when the creature had become besotted with the woman across from them. Offering up a negligent shrug in answer to her question, he frowned and pushed his empty plate to the side of the table as he thought. These were memories he had not thought of in many, many years. Had he been a demon of lesser intelligence, he wouldn't have bothered remembering how long exactly. As it was, he could remember to the hour how many years he had been trapped with the woman.

"It was an arranged marriage. Five hundred years ago, it was deemed important that as heir to the West, this one mate or marry and bequeath an heir of my own. It was not important to me and so my mother chose Kagura in my place." He smirked, remembering the chagrin his mother had faced when it was revealed that his wife was barren.

o.O.o

Word Count - 275