A/N: Finally got this one out. I put it off a little bit because I was working out some kinks in the plot of the next few chapters. Its all good now, I figured out what our two stubborn little mates needed. Sort of, well, we'll see when I actually write it out how they respond. Geez, sometimes I feel like I'm not in control of them at all. All I can do is mess with their circumstances and they react in complete accordance with their characters, despite my pleading for a little cooperation. Ha ha. Well, here it is. Advance warning, this one is a little darker. Just a little, but still, I thought you should know.

Everything was gray. Everything but her scent; that was a burning, bleeding color of mine, mine mine! Can't have her. Even if We don't want her, you can't have her. Sweat, burn, sweet, girl…

Sesshomaru snarled. Angry with himself. Angry with the demon inside him who didn't care that the girl had been forced on him. Didn't care that she was weak, fragile, breakable… Naraku had her! She would not be damaged! Protect. Pack. Bitch. Mate. Another roar flew ahead of him, curling on Naraku's trail. Focus, he had to stay sane. He couldn't let his demonic side take over. He would bring the girl back safe to save himself. He would not allow her to die because he wouldn't suffer the loss of dignity of dying as well. The loss of dignity of allowing a mate to be killed. The loss of a mate. His mate. The strange little mate who was alpha when she had no reason to be.

And she was an alpha female. Despite being physically weak and small she demanded obedience and deference from those around her without even trying. And that did not help him at all. Her shows of defiance skewed his thinking further then her being mated to him did. They demanded retaliation. Demanded that she submit, she may have been an alpha, but she wasn't his alpha.

A brighter spot of the girls scent and Sesshomaru snarled, tearing through the trees. The hanyou had cut her. Let her bleed to further enrage him. The bastard had marked his mate. Inexusable. Make him pay.

Why was it taking so long to find her? He had been running long enough and fast enough to be halfway to the coast by now. He was running through somewhere false. Naraku's castle was hidden and he was running through the shadows to reach it. It was disgusting, noise was muted, like his ears were stuffed with cloth, the air was foul with miasma, getting stronger every second.

Kodi was breathing this air. His female was breathing this poisonous stench. It would not kill her, but it was marking her as much as the bastard cutting her had. Naraku would pay, with pain, with blood, with his very soul. She belonged to him. No one could have her until he disposed of her himself. Until then, until then… mine.

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I was deposited in a stone room. My kimono had long been dirtied by dirt and bark and bloody scratches. "To strengthen the trail, make the chase more fun," Naraku had laughingly told me as he allowed my body to brush against the ground and trees as he flew towards his castle.

He stood over me now, looking at me with interest as I held the tattered remains of my kimono togethers. I stubbornly tied the belt tighter. Naraki smiled. He had taken the baboon skin off as soon as he had dropped me onto the dirt floor. The tentacles that had held me nowhere to be seen. I pushed to my feet.

"I could kill you right away of course, but Sesshomaru isn't likely to be here for awhile yet, if he is able to find us at all. Perhaps, we could play a bit first?"

I sneered at him, "I'd as soon play with an actual baboon."

Naraku frowned and lifted his hand, which morphed into a tentacle (So that's what he did with them.) and smacked into me, throwing me back to me knees.

"Lord Naraku?" a soft voice whispered from the door.

"What Kagura!?" Naraku shouted in obvious irritation at the interruption. He spun to face the speaker and a women stepped into view. She was very pretty; slim and elegant, feathers in her hair.

"There seems to be a disturbance in the shielding of the castle."

"Can't you handle it?"

"Mmm, I'm afraid that at times like this, my lacking heart is sorely debilitating," Kagura answere coldly. Naraku narrowed his eyes and visibly seethed.

I grimaced in disgust as Naraku glanced down at me. He sauntered over to me. My fingers curled in the dirt floor and I felt the edges of stones cutting into my palms.

"Well then dear one, you have a short respite. I'll be back soon," he crooned, caressing the limp hanks of my hair. I shuddered as he stepped away. I breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the room locking the solid stone door behind him. There were no windows and the room went nearly black. It wouldn't be a very long respite. The little manner of a slight breach in his shield wouldn't take very long. I shuddered, thinking of Naraku and his relationship with Kagura. Kagome had told me about her as well. The way he had looked at her… wasn't she a part of him? How could he look at her with such coldness?

I fiddled with a loose piece of stone that had cracked from the wall. Naraku was going to kill me. There was no doubt of that. And when I died, Sesshomaru would die as well.

"No," I whispered. I began to sweat despite the cold. I couldn't let him die, not because of me. Rin needed him after all. And I… I frowned, well, I had begun to like him. He was reserved and grumpy and rather violent. But he was also more honorable, and more honest and real than anyone I had ever encountered before. I couldn't let him die just because some little old man was off his rocker. "No!" I squeezed the bit of rock wincing as the sharp edge cut into my palm. I looked down at the blood pooling in between my fingers. I might be able to buy some time… I wouldn't let Sesshomaru die. I lifted the stone to the marking on my neck and began to cut it away.

Naraku wasn't happy when he found me. That was alright though, I wasn't happy either. I had heard him storming down the hall of the dungeons, already growling something about a giant dog attacking his castle. I had long since collapsed in a shivering heap as blood ran in wet pulses from my mess of a neck. The entire process had been worse then when I had decided to pierce my own belly button. And the fact that I hadn't been able to see what I was doing had caused quite a lot of cursing. I smiled up at him as he stood over me, gaping like the wet fish he was. I gurgled a laugh when his face went dark.

"Little bitch! You think this is going to stop me?" Naraku's arms exploded in a mass of tentacles. A few wrapped themselves around my arms, lifting me into the air.

"Er, yes actually. You can't hurt Sesshomaru now. And he's already here isn't he?" I cried out as he slammed me against the rocks. Naraku snarled in answer.

"So he is here. Ha!" I laughed again as the tentacles tightened.

"I can still kill you, you know," Naraku hissed.

"Oh, I know. But right now, all you'll be killing is a worthless human. The mating bond is, how did Kitomi put it? Oh yes, 'temporarily broken, until the skin heals and the mark reforms itself'… Yes, nothing but a ningen girl now." I giggled weakly and kicked at the tentacles.

"Yes, you are just a human girl now. But I think I'll enjoy killing you anyway. Besides, your death will still remove whatever extra strength your existence is supposed to give your mate," the tentacles whipped me against the ceiling. I cried out again, then I laughed. Then the ceiling was ripped away.

I twisted away from the falling bits of stone. Naraku seemed to be using me as a shield for all the really big bits. I shrieked as Sesshomaru snapped his jaws a little too near to my limp arms.

"Watch where you're biting you big mutt!" I called up at him. He snarled and snapped at me again, this time ripping into the tentacles holding me aloft. I fell and curled into a pain ridden ball. My neck began to bleed again. Sesshomaru lunged over me I looked up and met his red eyes. He snarled down at me. I smiled back. Then I passed out.

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I woke up to find myself wrapped in feathers. Feathers? What the hell? I slid my eyes open. Nope not feathers, fur. Sesshomaru's pelt actually. I seemed to be wrapped in his Mokomoko while he carried me. I looked up at him. God I was tired. Why was I so tired? His eyes were still as red as they were in his Youkai form. I took a breath and caught a whiff of myself. I stiffened.

"Oh! Let go! I'll walk!" I wriggled against his grip. Sesshomaru snarled.

"You will hold still Mate!"

"No! Let me down! I smell!" I wailed desperately.

"What? Cease your struggling Ningen. You are injured."

"I'm all gross Sesshomaru!" I whined. "You already think I smell when I'm clean! Even I can smell myself right now!" I twisted in his grip only managing to pull the scabbing on my neck open. I whimpered.

Sesshomaru snarled viciously and his pelt wrapped itself around me until I resembled a furry burrito.

"Fine! I'll just bleed all over you then! That'll show you," I muttered darkly, pretending the dampness on my cheeks wasn't there. I hid my face in his chest and dozed as Sesshomaru carried me.

"Where are we going? What happened to Narkau?" I murmured weakly sometime later. My neck hadn't stopped bleeding and with each drop trickling its way down my neck I could feel myself getting weaker.

"I left Naraku to my brother. You were too injured to wait while I killed him." I startled a bit at that. Sesshomaru would never leave a chance to kill Naraku to Inuyasha. "This Sesshomaru is taking you somewhere that is more defendable. You are more vulnerable while my mark is gone. You will not remove it again."

I frowned up at him, "Oh, I guess you'd prefer to be dead right now! Whatever. And I'm no more vulnerable than usual."

"You are a mate who has no claim. You are very vulnerable right now. Also, you are not healing as quickly as you would be if you had my mark on you. You will not remove it again!"

"Oh for the love of Pete! You're are the most contrary dog!"

"Who is Pete!" Sesshomaru snarled down at me.

I gaped mutely and shook my head, "All right, that conversation is over. You're acting really weird Sesshomaru."

"Hush, we are here."

"Here? Where's here?" I craned my head trying to see over the fur, but stopped when Sesshomaru growled again. I sighed but subsided.

Sesshomaru knelt and lowered me to a rock.

"A hot spring?" I muttered as he loosened the Mokomoko. I looked around at the steam filled enclave. Well it was certainly more defendable. We were surrounded on all sides with bare stone and the springs themselves filled the basin the stones made. The only part that the water didn't cover was the ledge I sat on. Sesshomaru stood in the shallows, his hakama swirling around him. I was leaning back on my hands, my knees slightly drawn up. I pulled my kimono closed as he looked down at me. The once beautiful garment was nothing more than rags now. I frowned down at the bit of neckline I held in my hands. I sighed; it had been so pretty. The damp heat of the air curled around me.

"Disrobe Ningen."

"You know," I sighed, "It wouldn't kill you to use my name. It's not even a hard name. Two syllables… Wait, what?"

"I said to disrobe. Your wounds need cleaning. Also, this Sesshomaru does not care to smell Naraku's dungeon any longer."

"I told you I smelled," I mumbled, "But if you think I'm taking my clothes off with you here…"

"Girl, you are mated to me. It does not matter if you are naked. But, since I have no interest in seeing you bare…" Sesshomaru shrugged out of his outer Kimono. "Wear this while in the water."

"Harrumph, fine. Turn around."

Sesshomaru growled and climbed out of the basin all together. I watched him go and wriggled out of my ripped, dirty clothing and into the too large kimono. The thing swamped me, the sleeves dragging around my as I belted it. The neck gaped open. I winced as I stepped into the water. Sesshomaru snarled behind me, startling me out of my remaining wits and swept me up out of the water.

"Hey! What are you doing? I thought you wanted me to bathe?" Sesshomaru lifted me and carried me into the pool.

"You should have waited girl. Going in by yourself was quite dangerous." I glared up at him, then blinked. He had removed his armor and wore only his hakama and the thin white inner kimono. Well, that was certainly… a nice look on him. Sesshomaru waded in until the water reached his chest. I was practically submerged by now. I gritted my teeth against the pain as the water lapped at my neck. I gritted my teeth again when Sesshomaru began wiping the grime from my person with a sweet smelling, oiled cloth.

"I can bathe myself you know," I muttered. Trying to tug the rag from his grasp.

"Be still," he sat me on a submerged ledge and continued to clean me. He pulled on of my arms out of it's sleeve and wiped at the bruises there. His eyes bled red as he rubbed the dirt away. I averted my eyes when I noticed his kimono was clinging to his shoulders in the damp. I held my kimono up with my clean hand as he began to clean my face.

"This really isn't necessary Sessho."

"I said be still!" Sesshomaru lifted my hair away from the wound on my neck. He looked at it for a moment, his face growing tight and dark. "This may hurt."

"What? Ow! Ew! Stop that!" He swooped down on the wound and pressed the flat of his tongue against me. "Sessho!" I squealed as he began swiping at it in earnest.

"Be still! We need your neck to heal quickly. I will not have you running around without my mark." I stilled under his hands and looked down at his head where it was buried in my neck.

"You. Are. Ridiculous."

"Be silent as well as still impertinent human."

"You know this is really awkward."

His tongue stilled against my neck and his hands fell from where they grasped my arms. His head remained buried in my shoulder. I heard what sounded suspiciously like a sigh.

"Do not remove your mark again."

"But-"

"Do not!"

"Alright, I won't," I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and rested my cheek against his silver hair. I patted his back soothingly, "I won't… unless someone's trying to kill you again."