Kagome paced between two trees, waiting.
"Lady Kagome, Rin has brought flowers for your hair." Kagome smiled down at the village orphan and knelt down so that the little girl could place flowers in her hair.
"Thank you, Rin."
"You look so pretty; I hope Rin can be a princess one day!"
Kagome stood back up and took a deep breath in. Rin smiled big and ran back to the wedding party.
"Are you ready?" Naoko asked, coming up behind her slowly. Kagome turned. "I'll never be more ready." Her tummy was in knots, and she felt sick. "Maybe, one more minute?"
Naoko bowed and went back to let everyone know that Kagome was almost ready. Her brother didn't seem worried; he was goofing off with the other guys.
Kagome placed a hand on her flat belly. "I, I can do this." She felt like she was about to jump to her death. She paled, heart racing.
Above her, high on a hilltop, a white figure showed up and stood still and cloaked. The wind blew his hair, and his gold eyes pierced through the evening. He watched as she dropped her hand to her now empty womb, and he wondered if she would go through with it.
She took a ragged breath and let but one tear fall; Sesshomaru looked away and closed his eyes.
He never wanted her. He never wanted this, but neither did she.
He opened his eyes to blue ones. She had spotted him. Her lips parted, and he knew she whispered his name. But he didn't move, didn't go to her.
Kagome quickly turned her back to him and closed her eyes. She rubbed her empty womb again. "He came for you." Though that babe he once put there was long gone "Not me."
She waited a moment more, hoping. But he made no move. "I guess this is goodbye." At least for now. She wondered if he could hear her from way over there. He couldn't, but he knew when she began to walk away. Her mind screamed to go back; her heart cried, save me, her tears called out for him.
But he just stood there and watched her go.
When Kagome reached Naoko and her parents, her tears were dry, but Naoko was not fooled. She quickly looked past Kagome and knew, Sesshomaru was there. Kagome's arm was taken, and as she began to walk to the man she would marry, Naoko made her way to the one she would soon wed.
Sesshomaru moved closer but still out of sight. "You came," Naoko spoke hushed.
"Hh"
"Will you stop her?"
Sesshomaru looked at her. "I am not here to save her."
"Then save yourself."
"From what?"
"Me,"
"Are you to harm me?"
"I won't make you happy."
He said nothing.
"You won't love me; I won't love you."
"Love, a human emotion ruled by overactive feelings," He spoke,
"How can you say that, my Lord, when the one who loves you is marrying another?"
"She does not love this one, a mere attachment from our once bond that created a life that no longer exists."
Her eyes grew wide with shock. "I knew the words about your person were true, the cold, dark prince with no love."
He looked at her, but his face showed nothing, as if her words did not affect him in the least.
"But I thought at least you had a heart, my Lord."
"No," He said, in all honesty, his heart was gone, long gone.
Naoko turned back to see her brother grabbing Kagome's hands. Miroku started the service, and Naoko's heart pounded with every second that went by. "My Lord," She spoke.
"Hn"
She looked at him. "Will you fill my womb as you did hers?"
His eyes glided down her and back up.
"Will you allow him to fill her womb as you once did?"
Then she saw it, a movement in his eyes, and she knew she had to keep pressing on that.
"If she says those vows, Sesshomaru, he will fill her by moonrise, and you will have to endure seeing her swollen with a child that is not yours." Her words became harsh. "You will have to endure when you smell her blood in labor with a child that is not yours." She moved closer. "You will have to endure the smell of him in her, on her, with her."
"Enough," He snapped,
"You will have to endure when the milk that comes from her breast feeds a baby that is not yours and never will be yours."
He grabbed her by the throat. "Enough demoness."
But she was not backing down. "She never wanted to lose that baby. Your baby, please, my Lord, give her another."
She felt his hand tremble under her skin. "You know as well as I, that her womb belongs to only you and your seed; I can still smell you in her."
He let her go harshly, and his eyes began to bleed, and she knew, she almost had him.
"Claim her, fill her, do not let him replace you within her, do not let my brother mate with a female that is rightfully yours."
His fangs got longer. "You are playing with fire," His voice was demonic now. "You are waking my beast wench."
Nakoko looked back to see her brother pressing a hand to Kagome's felt belly, promising to fill her. Naoko closed her eyes. "Do you not smell it, my Lord."
Sesshomarus red eyes closed. "What wench?" His voice dark and demonic.
"She is ripe and in heat and missing her lost one,"
She watched as he lifted his nose and smelt the wind, then his eyes snapped open, and he snarled at the sight of Kouga's hand on her Kagome's empty womb.
"Mine," He snarled, his marking going jagged.
Naoko closed her eyes. "Yes, yours, your female, your womb, now go and give her your seed."
His speed was great; it was like a harsh wind against her. Naoko's eyes turned red, and she transformed and howled the warning.
The beast was coming for his mate.