Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, its characters, or 'Royal Dragon' which this plot is based on.

Summary: Why did life hate her? Kagome's day couldn't get any worse. First, she gets fired from her crappy job, then, she gets kicked out of her apartment and was homeless. But the cherry on top was getting kidnapped and taken to be hunted by demons so she can mate with one of them. Yea…she probably shouldn't have gotten out of bed that morning.

The next morning, Inuyasha came back into his suite and headed back to his room to take a quick shower. He had woken up earlier than usual and decided to spend an extra hour in the workout room doing his morning routine. He needed the extra time to get his mind clear and go over the night before. It was obvious that Kagome was comfortable talking to him during dinner, she even smiled and laughed. That was, until she mentioned her mom, and when he asked about it, she shut down. He can't have her doing that again. If he was going to have any chance of winning her over, he needed her to be able to open up to him. To trust him. Starting today, he was going to start.

After getting dressed, Inuyasha headed to the kitchen and ordered breakfast for him and Kagome. From the sounds of it, it didn't seem like she was up yet. Looking at the clock, it was only ten minutes to eight. Maybe she'll be up around eight. It has been a few rough days, and this was probably the only time she was able to get a good night's sleep.

Inuyasha heard a knock at his door and went to answer it. The food sure did come fast. When he opened the door, he wasn't greeted by a kitchen hand to drop off his food, instead it was a castle messenger.

"And what do I owe the pleasure so early this morning?" Inuyasha asked the man, sarcastically.

"My apologies, Master Inuyasha." The messenger bowed, not noticing the sarcasm in Inuyasha's voice. "I have a message from Lord Sesshomaru stating that you are to report to him at ten o'clock this morning."

Shit, this was what he was afraid of. Inuyasha knew that his brother was going to want to see him to see how it was going with his new mate. However, he didn't think it was going to be this soon. Hell, he hadn't even had breakfast yet.

Inuyasha gave a sigh. "Alright. Tell my brother that I'll be down at ten o'clock."

He turned to walk away, before he turned back to look at Inuyasha. "He also instructed to bring your mate as well. He wants to meet her." He then walked away.

Double shit.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Kagome woke up and stretched the kinks in her body. Looking over at the clock on the nightstand, she saw that it was eight-thirty. She was still surprised she was able to get up so early, considering what happened the night before. She didn't want to admit it, but she actually had a nice evening with Inuyasha. She felt so at ease with him, and even laughed and smiled which she hadn't in what felt like years. That was until she went and mentioned her mom.

She just couldn't help it. When he asked her if her mom taught her to make their food like she did, Kagome didn't want to explain that the dinner she prepared them was actually one of her favorite dishes that her mom used to make when she was a kid. She even used to help her mom make it whenever they were going to have it, along with other meals. Even though it was one of the happiest times she got to spend with her mom, mentioning it last night also brought back the fact her mom was gone and she couldn't cook with her anymore.

Now that she thought of it, she hadn't made that dish herself in years, and even when Kaede tried to make it for her, she refused to eat it when she was a kid. This was the first time in years that she had eaten that meal. But instead of sharing that with him, she left him sitting at the table alone and went to her room and cried herself to sleep.

"Forget this." Kagome muttered to herself. She couldn't stay in bed all day, even though she was tempted to. Besides, she had to eat.

And just on cue, her stomach growled indicating its need to be filled. She got out of bed and went over to the bag she got from Inuyasha and pulled out a pair of loose grey pants along with a short-sleeved dark-blue shirt. After cleaning up and getting dressed, ten minutes later, she made her way towards the hallway, and headed to the kitchen. She saw Inuyasha placing different plates of food onto the island bar. He was about getting ready to turn around when he saw her.

"Morning."

"Morning." She replied shyly.

"I got us breakfast." He indicated to the abundance of food. "I wasn't sure what you would like so I got a bit of everything."

She saw that there were eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, pastries, toast and breakfast potatoes. "Thanks. This looks good." She said, taking a seat on the bar stool in front of the bar. She started helping herself to some of the food when she decided to get a spoonful of what she assumed was porridge. She took a bite and admittedly tasted heaven. "This is good!" She said, taking a mouthful.

"Ah, you got some of the porridge." Inuyasha said, placing a glass of juice in front of her, before taking a seat next to her.

"This is wonderful, you should get some before I eat it all.

"Nah." He said, getting a spoonful of the scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon. "The porridge the cooks make isn't all that great."

"Isn't all that great?" Kagome said, in disbelief. "You obviously never tried it."

"I have tried it." He took a bite of a piece of bacon. "My mother made a better porridge than that."

"Your mom?"

"Yea, she used to make it for me every morning for breakfast." A small smile crossed his face as he began. "She loved to cook and insisted that she cook all of our meals."

This certainly was another side of him Kagome didn't think she'd see. The way he talks about his mother had a calm and serene look over himself. However, she did notice the way he talked was in past tense. Which meant…

"So where is your mom?" Kagome asked, wanting to hear it from him.

"She fell ill and died when I was seven years old." He said, his face turning serious.

Kagome nodded in understanding. "What about your dad? Now that I think of it, you mentioned that your brother was the current ruler of these lands. Did he step down?"

He shook his head. "My father died years later. I was eleven or twelve at the time."

Kagome looked down at her half-eaten porridge. She didn't really have to do what she was about to do, however, she felt that it was far. "My mom cooked our meals too."

Inuyasha's ears gave a twitch.

"In fact, the meal we ate last night was a favorite of mine. Every Wednesday I would count the hours in getting home from school knowing that she was making it."

"She was the one that taught you how to cook?" Inuyasha asked her.

"Yea…" She replied, a bit sadly. "I used to always want to help her cook and even though I couldn't use the stove yet, I was still able to learn a lot from her."

"So what happened to her?" Inuyasha asked. He already knew that she didn't have any family, that was one of the reasons why she was selected for the foraging.

"When I was seven her, my grandpa and younger brother were killed in a car crash. We were all driving back from the park and the next thing I knew everything went black. I woke up in the hospital and was told that I was the only one that survived."

"You didn't have any other family?"

"My dad had died when I was four years old, and I had no other relatives. The only other person I considered family was Kaede."

"Kaede?"

"She was my foster mom. She took me in after my family died. However, three days after I turned eighteen, she died as well. I've been alone ever since."

"Guess we know first hand how it feels to be alone." Inuyasha replied, taking another bite of his food. "Growing up, being a half-demon wasn't something that was pleasant. You didn't fit in with demons or humans. There was no place to belong too."

Wow.

From the way Inuyasha acted, Kagome never would've guessed he didn't have a great childhood. At least hers was good, that is up until her family died. But it seemed like they both felt the same way in feeling alone and having no one to lean on when they needed it. She could say that was something they had in common.

"I'm sorry you had to experience that." Kagome told him, honestly.

"Thanks. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to experience that as well." Inuyasha told her. Feeling like he needed to change to subject, he decided to tell her the important news. "I have to go see my brother."

"Oh, well have fun." Kagome said, taking a sip of her juice.

"You'll have fun too, because you're coming with me." He said, getting up and taking his empty plate and putting it in the sink.

"What, why do I have to come?"

"A messenger came by this morning while you were still sleeping and my brother summoned us. He probably wants to know if we mated or not."

Kagome chocked a bit on her juice. "But we haven't."

"Believe me I know." He murmured to himself, before saying to her. "Other demons who got females have already had sex with their women."

"What would the point of meeting him be? I'll be leaving soon."

"And I'll let you go. However, I have two weeks to convince you. I'm hoping that you'll give this a chance, you said you would.

"Just because I'm giving you these weeks, it's not going to make a difference. I can't stay." She looked sad, her eyes clouded and she frowned.

"We'll see how you feel once those two weeks are up. C'mon, go get dressed, we have to be in front of my brother at ten o'clock and he hates lateness."

-0-0-0-0-0-

They made it to Sesshomaru's office on time and once they entered, he was sitting down at his oversized desk and Kagome never felt more nervous in her life. Sesshomaru was formidable. He looked like those mafia bosses she used to see on TV. She felt the need to hold Inuyasha's hand just to calm her nerves. She didn't of course.

The golden eyed, stern looking demon eyed her like she had food on her face or her top. Maybe her hair was mussed. Maybe it was the way she was dressed. Inuyasha was able to get her some new clothes like he said he would, and she had chosen to wear a sleeveless multi black jumpsuit with a tie at the neck. She thought it was appropriate since she was meeting the ruler of this land. However, all Sesshomaru did was give her a hard look. Then suddenly he sniffed the air, and after his third whiff his eyes hardened and his frown deepened.

"You have not mated with her. In fact, you have not even rutted with her." Sesshomaru said to Inuyasha.

"It's only been two days." Kagome spoke up. "Sure some people sleep together after the first meeting, but we're getting to know each other first."

"Why have you not rutted with her yet? It's been two days you should've at least put your scent on her." Sesshomaru said, completely ignoring Kagome.

"Hello, I'm I invisible or something? I was under the impression that you wanted to meet me, so you should actually talk to me instead of talking about me like I'm not here. It's damned rude. I thought rulers were supposed to be polite?"

Sesshomaru frowned deeper. "Inuyasha, you need to teach your woman to show some respect. She might be human and not know our ways, but she will learn to respect those who are of higher class."

"Excuse me?"

Inuyasha stepped forward and pulled Kagome to his side when she was about to step forward. "Kagome don't." He told her quietly. "Sesshomaru, she does have a point. You wanted to see her as well, so talk directly to her."

When Sesshomaru got up from his seat and finally looked at her, she was taken aback. Wow, know that he was fully standing, she was able to fully look and him and he actually looked pretty handsome. His hair was the same length and shade like Inuyasha's but was taller and slender than Inuyasha was. His eyes were also the same shade like Inuyasha's but instead of the lightness and softness she saw in Inuyasha's, Sesshomaru's was hard and almost cold. But the noticeable thing was that unlike Inuyasha's ears, he had two pointed ears. She also saw that he was also wearing a grey designer suit and what looked like a long piece of fur around his right shoulder.

"Hello, woman." He said turning to her, no emotion in his voice. "Why has my brother not rutted with you yet?"

"Um…that's a bit personal―"

"We're discussing it." Inuyasha quickly intervened.

"Discussing what? We've already agreed that we weren't going to mate." Kagome answered.

"What!" Sesshomaru growled angrily. "Inuyasha it was clear what you needed to do for this land and that was pick to acquire a human woman and impregnant her."

"Sesshomaru, we're not ready for that. If you give us more time."

"Time for what?" Kagome said, interrupting his sentence and giving him a frustrated look. "Inuyasha, you promised me that once the two weeks were up, you'd let me go home."

"Inuyasha." Sesshomaru stated sternly. "Take this creature back to whatever place she came from. It is obvious she wants to go back so take her back. You are just wasting your time."

Her blood seemed to slow and cool, even though her heart sped up. How dare this guy talk about her like that! But the strange thing was, she was starting to get scared. What if Inuyasha did decide right here and now to send her back home to Seattle? The funny thing was, she didn't want to go back just yet. Her and Inuyasha agreed she would stay for two weeks and she wanted him to uphold it. She wanted these two weeks of relaxation before she had to face the real world again. And, which she didn't want to admit, she wanted to get to know Inuyasha a bit more. Sure, after these weeks were up, she'd probably never see him again. But who knew? Maybe whenever he came to the human realm, they could hang out, build a long-distance friendship.

"No, I'm not taking her back." Inuyasha stated.

"You have to." Sesshomaru was looking at her. "This female does not want to become your mate. She is useless to us."

What an asshole!

Inuyasha took a hold of her wrist, causing Kagome to wince. She was about to let him know, but he gave a tiny shake of his head. It was meant for her. Kagome realized that she had sucked in a breath and was about to tell this entitled prick exactly what she thought of him.

"Kagome, I need to have a talk with Sesshomaru. Would you mind waiting outside or you could go visit Atlas and his woman. I'll get you in a few minutes. Ten minutes top."

"I thought I wasn't allowed anywhere without you."

"As long as you go directly to Atlas' chambers or wait in the hall outside this office, you'll be fine."

Kagome was about to protest, though when she saw the look he gave her, she knew better than to argue. "Ok. I guess I can go and talk Aero until you're finished."

"Thank you. I'll follow your scent, so don't worry I'll find you."

Kagome nodded, then headed toward the door, closing it behind her and walked down the hall. If she remembered correctly, where Aero was shouldn't be that far.

"Kagome!"

A voice called her. When Kagome turned, she saw that it was Aero and Atlas, the two people she wanted to see.

The pair walked towards her, Aero's arms wrapped around Atlas' right arm, her leaning in close to him. "How are you? Wait, where's Inuyasha, shouldn't you be with him?" She asked her.

"He's talking to his brother. I was actually on my way to find you guys and wait in your room." Kagome told them.

"You're more than welcome to wait in our chambers until Inuyasha is done. Though if he gave you a time frame, it might be longer than that. Most of the time when the two of them have meetings, they usually throw blows." Atlas said.

"Are you serious?" Kagome asked, surprised.

"Inuyasha's pretty strong, even though he's only a half-demon. He's proven himself to be one of the fiercest and strongest fighters in the Western lands. Aside from Lord Sesshomaru of course."

"I thought you were the strongest, fiercest fighter." Aero let go of his arm and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I am." Atlas growled, his eyes firmly on Aero. They had softened, his voice deepened up a whole lot. "I'm the strongest of the soldiers. Don't say anything…" He looked around him. "I'm stronger than Inuyasha and that's saying something."

Aero giggled, and hugged him tighter. "I know that there are a lot of things you're the best at."

Ok, that was too much information. Kagome could totally guess what Aero was talking about. She looked away and scratched the back of her head, noticing Ashley for the first time. At least, from this angle it looked like her. The heiress was sitting on a huge guy's lap. Her arms were circled around his neck. They were in deep conversation. "Is that?"

The woman that looked like Ashley giggled like a school girl. The prissy heiress wouldn't laugh like that. Then she locked lips with the guy. She wouldn't kiss like that. Then again, she wouldn't have the wild sex she'd heard her having with the other guy either. Maybe it was Ashley. The lady who looked like her had her hands all over the guy.

"No way. It can't be." She huffed. That woman was far too happy, too carefree to be the uptight heiress.

Aero stepped forward. "It's her alright. She's all in. Her and that demon are going to be mated tomorrow."

"What?" Kagome said, a bit too loud. She slapped a hand over her mouth. "That's nuts. She's known him for only two days."

"Three days actually. After the foraging, we came back to the castle on the same day. But demon mating is different from human marriage ceremonies. But from what she told me, after yesterday she decided to become his mate and stay here."

"But they barely know each other."

"Hey, when you know you know… right?" Aero chewed on her lower lip.

Kagome shook her head. "No. There's such a thing as crazy hormones. Once she gets to know him, really gets to know him, she might change her mind. There'll be no more hormones and what then? There might be a few demon babies running around and then it'll be too late, won't it?"

Atlas shoved from one foot to the other. He didn't look comfortable. "Um…" He looked at the door. "There's somewhere I need to be. I'll see you back at our chamber." He looked deep into Aero's eyes. Oh boy! It looked like these two were head over heels. More of those crazy hormones. It was just the sex and the cuddling, oh and the handholding. Such things did strange things to people. It wasn't real and it wouldn't last.

"Yeah." Aero reached up and kissed him. He picked her up off of her feet and kissed her some more before putting her back down. The kissing didn't stop though.

Argh! Where to look. Where to look. Ashley was kissing her mate's face right off of his head. Mate. Nuts! The big guy stood up with the heiress wrapped around him. She looked like she was climbing a pole. If poles were thick and made of muscle. "She's in heat." Aero whispered. She'd obviously come up for air while Kagome was gaping at the spectacle.

"What did you say?" Kagome blurted.

"Heat. You know, ovulating. It makes demons just a little gaga." She twirled her fingers around her temple. She made a humming noise. "Yeah, they're driven to procreate." She winked at Atlas who blushed.

Atlas smiled. "Good-bye, Kagome. I really hope you give Inuyasha a chance. I'm sure I'll see you around." He nodded once.

She nodded too, but she didn't say anything. When he walked away, Aero watched him until he was out of sight. She had a goofy smile on her face.

"You have it bad." Kagome said.

"Oh so very bad. I'm seriously in love. Like totally and utterly." The woman grabbed her chest and sighed. "Look at him. Just look at him."

"Um… he just left."

"You know what I mean. He's so damned hot and so sweet. Do you know that he won't let me do anything? He insists on cooking, cleaning…doing everything. I'm not allowed to lift a finger. The only thing he lets me…" She blushed. "Never mind."

Kagome could imagine.

Aero sucked in a deep breath. "I've decided to become his mate."

"What? You too?" Kagome shook her head. "Three days isn't nearly enough. You know that don't you? I don't care how cute he is or how gifted in bed he is, you can't possibly know him well enough."

"I don't need to know everything about him. I've never felt this way about anyone else. I don't have much to go back to but that's not the reason I want to stay. I love him… that's all there is to it. I was also a little skeptical of Ashley when she told me she was mating Fynn. I thought she was just using him. Each of us has a sob story and our own problems. We were chosen because we were didn't have anything to go back too and they hoped that they could help us as much as we could help them."

"I'm still not entirely convinced, but okay." Kagome folded her arms across her chest.

From what she could remember, Aero was eighteen years old and from New York City. She never knew her father and her mother had died on a drug overdose when she was three years old. She was put into an orphanage and she stayed until her eighteenth birthday. From what Aero said, she had to leave since at eighteen they kick you out, and she was on her way to a job interview that the head of the orphanage helped her secure until she was grabbed and brought here.

Aero licked her lips. "Remember how high and mighty Ashley acted?"

Kagome nodded.

"She told us that her dad died and left her a billionaire, well, it's true that he died but he didn't leave her anything. All of his wealth went to his young wife. A woman only two years older than Ashley. The dumb cow had her dad change his will while on his deathbed and not thinking clearly." She took a deep breath. "Can you imagine? Ashley was contesting the will but it was her word against the wife's. There was a good chance Ashley was going to lose. Especially since her dad's doctor was sleeping with the stepmom and is standing in as a witness. It was only a matter of days before she was kicked out of her own house. How horrible is that?"

Her eyes were wide and she used elaborate hand gestures while she spoke. "Poor Ashley cried when she spoke about her father. She blamed him initially but it clearly wasn't his fault. Anyway…" Aero raised her brows. "My point is that I thought Ashley was using Fynn, since demons live decently…" She gestured around the castle. "But I was wrong. She seriously loves him. They're already trying for a baby."

"This is getting crazier by the second." Kagome rubbed her face.

When she looked back up, Aero's eyes were bright. "A tiny, little baby with big blue eyes and blond hair. He'll be so cute and—"

"Are you talking about your own baby or Ashley's?"

She frowned. "Okay… maybe I was talking about mine. Mine and Atlas' little one. I'm not ready though and he's not going to pressure me." She scrunched up her face. "No, he'll put pressure on me. He won't be able to help himself. It's their instinct to procreate. That's why we drive them so mad when we're in heat… ovulating." She corrected. "I'm too young to have a baby though."

"Far too young. You're too young to get married."

Aero nodded. "I'm too young for marriage but not too young to be mated, I'm taking the plunge. I'm ready. Atlas is the man for me."

These women were losing their minds. No matter. Let these women stay here for the rest of their lives and believe they found they happily ever after. Kagome was sane enough to know that staying here would be a big mistake and she was going to leave. Even if she might be sad to do so in the end.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Inuyasha watched as his brother walked from one side of the room to the other. His fists were clenched. His eyes blazing. "Calm down." He growled. "I have things under control."

"Do you?" Sesshomaru growled right back. He stopped and wheeled towards him. "Send her back. You would just have to wait until next year's forage to find another female."

"No, I got Kagome fairly. Plus we made an agreement."

"Forget whatever agreement you made with the woman and remember the agreement we all made. If I remember correctly, it was your idea to begin with. If a female does not want to be with a demon, no matter how hard he tries to win her, she would be allowed to leave and return to her old life. Those were your exact words."

Inuyasha growled. Leave it to his brother to actually remember what he said. Though he was right. Inuyasha was the one to say that if a woman wanted to leave, she was allowed to no matter what. Thing was, he wasn't ready to let Kagome go just yet. Even though he did promise her, he was convinced that before the two weeks were up, he'd be able to change her mind and have her stay. "It's only been three days. It takes humans longer to forge a bond and get to know someone longer than that."

"No. Its obvious this woman is not even interested in you. She is a lost cause."

"No she isn't!" He snarled. His heart raced at the thought of sending her back. The need to protect and defend rose up in him. The need to smash his brother's jaw rode him hard. Kagome wasn't going anywhere. Not while he was still breathing.

Sesshomaru gave him another stern look, his eyes hardening even more. "What is it with demons and their fascination with human women? The next group will do just fine I assure you." His brother's features tightened. He clenched his jaw. "At this rate you will fall to ruin over this woman. Just like how our father did when he fell for your mother."

"You leave me mother out of this, Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha yelled, eyes flickering red.

"I will not!" Sesshomaru yelled back, his eyes narrowing also flickering red. "As much as I hate to say this, I will not allow you to end up like our father. He became weak after you mother fell ill and when she died, he was nothing but a shell. To him she was everything and then he became nothing. I refuse to mix myself up with these horrible creatures and fall victim to their wiles. I especially do not one as a mate, however what choice do I have? So far, this forage has been successful and as the ruler I would need an heir. As well as you. You need to either mate that human and get her with child or take her back."

"I need more time." Inuyasha said. "Let me have until the next forage." Sesshomaru made it sound like it was an easy thing to do. But Kagome was timid and yet she was fierce at the same time. She needed time. It wasn't going to happen overnight. It would probably take weeks, maybe even months, heaven forbid but it might take years.

Sesshomaru shook his head. "You do not have a full year. That woman mentioned earlier that you promised to take her back in two weeks, and that is the time you have. If you are not mated to her when the two weeks are up, I am personally going to send her back." He then went back to take a seat at his desk. "You are dismissed."

Inuyasha growled in anger and irritation. Most of all, he growled in frustration, as he turned and left his brothers office. How was this going to work out? Already, Kagome was dead set on returning home. Maybe he should just listen to his brother and send her back. He could always try and find another woman next year. However, the thought of letting Kagome leave and having another woman irritated him. He didn't want another one. Another wouldn't be as beautiful, and fierce as Kagome. This morning, he knew he had somewhat of a breakthrough with her when they both discussed their mothers. All he had to do was show her that being with him and mated to him wouldn't be a bad thing. It would be a good thing in the long run. However, with the amount of time he had, he sure had some work to do. A lot of work.

BlueMoon Goddess: In case some where wondering how Kagome's outfit looked, here's the link to the site where I got it from

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