InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Underground Railroad ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sorry, they’re not mine, although I’m hoping to buy them once I win the lottery…. Underground Railroad  

The young woman fussed unnecessarily with the crown of rosemary and red rosebuds she wore on her hair. She had been looking forward to this day for nearly two years, ever since the day she had been contemplating suicide in the shrine’s well house. The month previous to that day had been the very worst of her young life--she had lost nearly everything of value to her except for her immediate family, and had no way to return to the reality she hadn’t even realized that she had chosen as her own.

And then, when her despair had been at its darkest, the deep, soft voice had come from the blackness around her, effectively ending it forever.

There had been no question that they would marry as soon as she had completed the legal minimum amount of time in school. He had, after all, been waiting for her for five centuries--it would hardly be fair to expect him to wait any longer than absolutely necessary. It had been difficult to wait: even though he now had his own residence outside of the city, he had spent nearly every possible moment in her company. In a way, his intense, desperate hunger for her had been a little disturbing to the friends and family who were delighted at her apparently instant recovery.

Anyway, it had been a long nineteen months, but the day had come when the two lovers would finally be together. Looking at the growing darkness outside the window, she fidgeted restlessly, looking at her mother for her cue. “It should be time pretty soon, right?”

The older woman had been waiting for this event for even longer than her daughter. “Relax, dear,” she said. “The sun has just gone down. We’ll probably be ready to start in another ten or fifteen minutes.”

Suddenly insecure, Kagome shook her head. “He’s down there, isn’t he?”

Her mother smiled softly. “Of course he is. He’s been waiting for you for more than five hundred years. I don’t think he’s going to get cold feet now.”

The young woman shook her head in wonder that her mother could be so accepting of the hanyou she had first met nearly three years ago, when she had been dragged back through the portal into the Sengoku Jidai by a centipede youkai demanding a legendary jewel she had only heard of in her grandfather’s stories. It had taken months of traveling and working together, but the two had gone from an uneasy truce to a close friendship to an impossible unspoken passion. The very first time he had come to her time to retrieve her after she had come home he had barged into the house while the family was eating dinner. Her mother had reacted to him in exactly the same manner that she herself had when she had first seen him sealed to the Goshinboku that formed the center of the Higurashi family’s shrine--she had reached up to rub the velvety fur of the canine ears that sat on top of his head.

Although she had never told the older woman much of what had occurred while she was in the past, her mother had instantly recognized that the young hanyou would protect her with his life. It had, all things considered, made her frequent trips back in time much easier on the relations left behind.  

She was startled out of her memories of the time they had spent together by her mother’s soft voice. “It’s time.”

Picking up the long cascade of red roses and white lilies from the desk at which she had often fallen asleep while trying to get caught up on the school work she had missed while traveling around the countryside five hundred years in the past, she smiled at her mother and headed for the door. “Let’s go, then.”

The tall man emerged from the well house in which he had been preparing and took his place under the sacred tree in the shrine’s central courtyard. Although he had never met any of the people filling the seats, he was not unduly concerned. He had matured greatly over the centuries, and he no longer worried about attracting attention, especially tonight: even though he stood before a crowd of mostly strangers--in his human form, no less--he knew that as soon as Kagome appeared she would become the center of attention. Even though he had been intimately involved in the planning for the ceremony, he had not been allowed to see her in the gown they had chosen: the girl’s mother had been adamant about observing the traditions she understood.

Still, it was only a short wait until the music started and his bride appeared at the end of the long aisle formed by the chairs set up for the ceremony. Later, he would never remember what the music had sounded like or the spectators looked like--the only thing that seemed real was the woman who almost seemed to be floating just above the ground. He was glad that they had chosen the decorative torches to illuminate the site: the slightly golden light enhanced the ivory satin of the gown, causing the tiny glass beads scattered over the fabric to glitter as they reflected the light. Her creamy skin and shining ebony hair worn loose around her shoulders made her look like a goddess from some ancient legend. Watching her approach, it was all he could do to breathe around the lump in his throat from the passion he had been denying himself for more than five centuries.

Fortunately, the ceremony was a short one, and he could finally hold the woman that had been his entire reason for living for so long. He was even willing to put up with the press of humans during the reception that followed the ceremony for the sake of his new mate. Still, after waiting the required time--until the first of the guests had started to leave--he was only too glad to almost drag her down the long flight of steps at the front of the shrine to the shining black limo that he had borrowed for the occasion. He had no doubt that the party would continue in their absence.

Since the driver had already been given his instructions, the two in the rear of the vehicle had a little time in which they could simply be together. Reaching out to her, he pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. “It’s been so long….” he whispered.

“You know,” she whispered, “We could have been doing this all along--ever since you first showed yourself.”

“I couldn’t,” he said, dragging his lips down the side of her neck to the hollow behind her right ear. “How could I have continued to live apart from you after we were mated?”

She smiled in the darkness of the limo’s back seat--even after all this time he hadn’t completely lost some of his odd turns of phrase. “I think I like the sound of that.” Reaching up, she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him down so that she could reach his lips more easily. “Will it take us long to get home?”

He grinned into the darkness. “Not long--an hour or so, maybe.”

Her answering smile was shaky. “I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

His voice was soft, almost a purr in her ear. “I think I can keep you…amused in the meantime.”

Although he had never been intimate with a woman in his long life, he had spent some time studying what humans found erotic so that he would not disappoint her when they were finally mated. Of course, they were mated only by the human ritual so far--he would have to attend to the youkai ritual once the sun rose and he returned to his normal hanyou form. This worried him more than a little, as he realized that it would inevitably cause her some pain. Still, his studies had shown him some possible ways that he might make it less distressing.

By the time they arrived at the secluded house in the small forest just outside the city, the woman was nearly frantic from the unending attentions of his light touch and soft lips. She trembled in anticipation as the car pulled to a stop. Although she could see little in the darkness, it was apparent that the building was on the large side. It seemed to be built in a classically traditional style, with perfectly-manicured gardens surrounding the structure.

Although the driver was in fact youkai, the dividing window between the driver’s compartment and the rear of the vehicle prevented him from detecting the intense scent of her arousal that permeated the air inside the vehicle. Even though he himself was in his human form, he was aware of her condition, as it mirrored his own. It was, he decided, going to be a long night.

As they emerged from the vehicle, he scooped her up into his arms, striding purposefully to the front door. Setting her on her feet for a moment, he opened the door before lifting her easily again and stepping inside. Although he set her on her feet once inside the house, she refused to relinquish her hold on his neck, pulling his head down so that she could once again taste the lips she had dreamed about for so long.

Reaching up to the arms around his neck, he freed himself, taking her by the hand and leading her to the large room he had prepared at the rear of the house. Though the room, like the rest of the house she saw, was sparsely furnished, every item was chosen with both high quality and impeccable taste in mind. Stopping in the door, she looked around in surprise at the tatami mats covering the wooden floor, the shoji door leading out to the wide porch at the rear of the building, the assorted small pieces of furniture around the room, and the largest bed she had ever seen nearly buried in pillows. The small table at the bedside held a large pitcher of ice water, two glasses, and what looked like two or three dozen deep red roses in an absolutely exquisite crystal vase.

Looking up at the wall above the head of the bed, she smiled as she caught sight of the strand of beads decorating the wall there. “You kept them all this time?”

Her new husband smiled, his dark eyes shining with the passion that could no longer be denied. “They were the only link I still had with you. Not a day went by that I didn’t handle

them, thinking about when we would finally meet again.”

She shivered, thinking of the endless days he had spent simply waiting. “Was it horrible? I only spent a month or so without you, and wanted to die.”

He sat down on the bed, pulling her down to sit next to him. “It wasn’t fun,” he said, stroking her hair absently, “But I had an advantage you didn’t have--I knew that it was only a matter of time before you would be born, so all I had to do was stay alive until then. You didn’t know what happened to me, or any of us, or if the well would ever open again so that you could go back.”

He looked at her, surprised to see that she was crying softly, tears slipping down her face to drop into the cleavage visible above the top of her gown. “Don’t cry, koishii, I’ll try never to disappoint you again.” That made him think once again of his inexperience. Since she was equally virginal, he didn’t think that she would notice that he was a little nervous.

“It’s not like that,” she whispered. “It’s just that you were so alone….”

He shook his head, pulling her closer so that she could rest her head on his shoulder. “It was a long time before I was actually alone--the others all stayed in the village for the rest of their lives. Still, I didn’t spend a lot of time in the village itself--I was usually in the Goshinboku or at the well. After the others all passed on, I traveled a little, although I still stayed close to the well in case it started to work again. I started to spend a lot of time studying--believe it or not--in case there was some answer to be found.” He stroked her hair, letting his hand stray down her shoulder.

She trembled again, this time in anticipation, as he trailed soft kisses down the side of her neck to the almost invisible scar she still carried from the final battle with Naraku. At the slight gasp brought on by the sudden intense sensations, he asked, “Do you need my help with the buttons?”

At her silent nod, he turned her around so that she was facing away from him, then dropped his head to brush his lips across the back of her neck. Watching her reactions carefully so that he would remember exactly what seemed to please her the most, he quickly started work on the long row of buttons going down her back. As each new area was exposed, he made sure to give it plenty of attention. By the time the garment was completely unbuttoned, she was leaning back against him, allowing him complete access to her untouched body.

He could only stare in wonder for a few seconds. Gods, he loved her. He shook his head at the thought that he could have ever given her up for the memory of a dead woman. Easing the gown from where it had become tangled around her hips, he let it drop to the floor--there would be plenty of time to deal with that later.

He understood that her first time would be painful, and wanted to give her as much pleasure as he could before that moment. Though she was still partially clothed, he would go no further right now. Easing her gently down into the pillows, he proceeded to slowly cover every exposed surface of her skin with soft, feather-light kisses. It did not matter that many of the areas he singled out for his attention were not usually considered erotic--he was trying to create a particular mood in which she would somehow understand that she was being loved as a whole,

rather than as a collection of a few specific parts.

Although his inhumanly acute senses were dulled by his monthly transformations to human form, he was painfully aware of the rich scent of her arousal and the soft moans and sighs that punctuated her breathing. This, he decided, was going to be a lot more difficult that he had thought.

Looking up at her face, he thought that it was probably time to proceed a little further. While stroking her soft skin with his left hand, he used his right to remove her bra, garter belt, and stockings. For now, he would leave her panties in place. Returning to her face, he pressed a soft kiss on her lips, a bit surprised when she moaned and deepened the contact, arching her body to press against him.

Pulling back from her fractionally, he looked at her. Now, nearly fully exposed to his gaze, she seemed even more some wild goddess, her head thrown back, eyes nearly closed in passion, her soft lips parted. He shook his head in something like mild distress. After seeing her like this, there was no way he could maintain enough control to keep from hurting her when he finally took her. “Listen, koishii,” he said, a soft breath in her ear, “This is going to hurt some, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stop once I begin. The pain should go away soon.”

He quickly removed the last piece of fabric separating him from his new mate, immensely glad that he was human tonight. His hanyou form would never have been able to handle the intoxicating aroma--even in this form it was all he could do to stay on his feet long enough to undress. This had bothered him a little at first. Although she had actually seen him naked a couple of times, on one occasion he’d been covered in bubbles and on the other he’d been in a pool of water, and he had certainly not been in this advanced state of readiness.

The woman was surprised when he left her briefly. Looking up, she realized that he was undressing. She blushed furiously, but couldn’t help staring all the same. He was so beautiful! Even though she wasn’t really used to him in this form, he really didn’t look all that different to her. His skin was--for the most part--smooth and unblemished, the only scar he possessed being a jagged white mark on his chest where Kikyou’s arrow had sealed him so long ago. His shining black hair had been freed from the tie that had restricted it during the ceremony, and his dark eyes almost seemed to glow with something she couldn’t define. “I think you should hurry--I can’t take much more of this.”

Stretching out in the pillows next to her, he continued to run his hands over the smoothness of her skin. Watching her reactions carefully, it seemed to him that she was growing very close to her peak of ecstasy. Whispering an apology for what he was about to do, he prepared to make her his mate in fact as well as in name. As he moved sharply he could feel her stiffen slightly, and realized that she must be in some pain, but muffled her cry of surprise and pain with his own lips. Remaining motionless for a few moments was sheer torture, but he wanted to give her time to adjust to the unfamiliar invasion. As he felt her internal muscles begin to relax and her breathing become faster and deeper, he began moving again, slowly at first, then with more vigor. Only moments later, she stiffened beneath him, a high moan coming from deep in her throat. With a rough groan, he collapsed at her side.

He opened his eyes when the dawn brought the surge of energy through his body that signaled his return to his normal form. Though he typically didn’t sleep while in human form

because he felt so vulnerable, the sensations from their earlier activities had left him overwhelmed and caught in the grip of a kind of sensory overload. Looking down at the woman asleep next to him he inhaled deeply, checking for any signs of injury in her scent. There was, in fact, a very faint blood scent, but that was to be expected. Moving as slowly as possible to avoid disturbing her, he pulled her closer to him, resting her head against his chest.

He stroked her hair, simply enjoying the feel of the silken strands as they slid through his clawed fingers. His mate stirred against him and he looked down at her, surprised to see dark eyes peering into his own. “How do you feel?”

She stretched luxuriously, and he blushed a little--the friction of her skin against his own was starting to reignite his desire. She smiled softly and said, “A lot better than I expected, actually. I mean, I expected it to hurt a lot more than it did.”

He grinned broadly and grabbed her hand. “Come on,” he said, pulling her up from the pillows, “I know just the thing.” He led her out the sliding door to the wide porch that surrounded three sides of the building, grabbing the small duffel bag he had prepared in advance and left near the portal.

She looked around a little apprehensively--they had not, after all, bothered to dress before coming out here. He led her silently around a thickly planted area to the small hot spring that was one of the reasons he had chosen this site--she had always loved soaking in the hot springs they had located on their travels. “I thought you might be sore after last night, so I figured we could spend a little time here today.”

She gave him a smile that almost made him forget how to breathe. “Could we really?”

His expression turned suddenly serious. “Kagome, there are some things I never really explained.” At her expectant look, he helped her into the gently steaming water before continuing, “Do you remember the day I found you in the well house? I told you then that I’d been working with Sesshoumaru and was thinking of retiring. The fact of the matter is that I’m more than a little wealthy. As far as I’m concerned, we can do whatever you’d like. There is,” he said, “Something I need to talk to you about.”

She moved closer to him, not quite touching him in the hot water. “What is it?” She couldn’t entirely keep the anxiety out of her voice. Could he be having second thoughts?

He reached out, pulling her against him. “Last night we were mated by the human ceremony, and then consummated that union. We still haven’t held the youkai ritual.”

“I never knew that there was a youkai mating ritual.”

He laughed softly, a sound she was still starting to become used to. “It’s never been common knowledge--there’s no reason to expect that you would have known. Sango probably knew about it--I would think that the youkai taijiya would have information like that. It’s something I want you to seriously consider.”

She was becoming intrigued. “What kind of ceremony is it?”

“That’s the thing,” he said, shaking his head slowly and staring down into the water. “The ritual itself is simple enough--I would have to mark you as my mate.”

“Exactly how does that work?”

His voice was a harsh whisper--he hadn’t really wanted to inflict this on her, but there were reasons why it was not only advisable but nearly essential in this particular case. “I would have to leave scars on you while mating. They’re usually found on the shoulder or back, but could be in other locations.”

She studied him closely. “This is important to you, isn’t it?”

He nodded silently. In that instant she made a decision--grabbing his hand, she pulled him from the water. “Let’s go back inside,” she said. “You can explain why this means so much to you later on.”

As he had done on the previous night, he proceeded slowly, although maintaining his own control was much more difficult now that he could detect all the nuances of her growing arousal in her scent and hear her racing heartbeat. He stood behind her, arms around her waist, and bent his head to the juncture of her neck and shoulder. She shivered in his embrace, her breath coming in soft gasps as she responded to him as though she had been born for this.

Gripping her tightly around the waist with his right arm, he lightly dragged the claws of his left hand down the back of her neck, surprised at the low moan that escaped her at his action. It had never occurred to him that the same claws that he had once used to hunt and fight with could create such intense waves of passion in his mate. It was not a lesson that he would forget.

He could sense that she was beginning to reach her peak. Maintaining his grip on her, he positioned his claws between her shoulder blades and sharply brought his hand down toward her waist, leaving three long, shallow scratches. As he had hoped, her intense level of arousal masked the discomfort of the marking. He loosened his grip on her and she turned in his grasp, clinging to him. Understanding that she would need his assistance to attain the satisfaction she was growing ever more desperate to achieve, he lowered her to the pillows, carefully positioning her to prevent any further pain in the scratches on her back.

Although his hunger for her was equal to her own for him, he decided to forego his own pleasure in order to avoid causing her any further discomfort. Using his lightest touch and soft lips, he teased her body to heights of passion she had only dreamed of, not allowing her to reach her release until he was certain that she could stand it no longer.

As she lay beside him, he looked at the marks on her back. They would definitely leave scars, although they would be extremely faint. He instinctively licked the traces of blood from the shallow cuts, knowing that this act would speed the healing process. At the taste of her blood on his tongue he shuddered with a resurgence of passion, barely managing to keep from taking her again, asleep or not.

Positioning her so that she lay on her stomach at his side, her head resting on his shoulder, he carefully brushed the loose strands of hair away from the scratches to keep them from sticking to the wounds as they healed. Carefully turning to face her, he pulled the light silken sheet up over them as he wrapped his free arm around her waist, secure in the knowledge that she would be able to sense his presence through the light contact even though she was now deeply asleep. *  

“Didn’t you sleep at all?”

He smiled down at his mate--in every sense of the word now--and shook his head. “You know I don’t need a lot of sleep--and I got plenty last night. Now,” he said, turning her so that he could see the scratches he had left clearly, “Let me take a look at those marks.”

She was surprised that they didn’t hurt more than they did--all she could feel was a slight irritation, something like what she might expect from an especially scratchy wool sweater. “You know,” she said, facing away from him as he examined the rapidly healing cuts, “It wasn’t that big a deal after all. I mean, I hardly felt anything at all.”

Satisfied that the scratches were indeed healing well, he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. He buried his face in the side of her neck, noting with surprise how she gasped and shivered with pleasure when he grazed the tender skin of her throat with a fang. Pulling back from her, he returned them to the pillows, holding her close in a moment of tenderness that threatened to erupt into something more erotic at the very first opportunity. “I was hoping for that--it means that I did it right.”

She looked up at his face in curiosity, noting that his soft amber eyes seemed clouded by some concern she couldn’t hope to identify. “You were going to explain why this ceremony was so important.”

He shook his head, startled out of his thoughts of the endless future ahead of them. “Most youkai use the marking ritual for identification purposes. When you mated with me, your scent began to change, to become a little more like mine. This mark intensifies that effect--any youkai you meet will know that you’re my mate and not to be touched.”

Her brow furrowed in concentration. “But what’s the point of that? I mean, there aren’t any more youkai.”

The hanyou simply stared at her for a few moments, then rose from the bed and went into the next room. She could hear him talking briefly with someone, but couldn’t identify the words. She watched in silence as he returned, eyes wide with curiosity. Sliding back into bed, he said only, “We can talk about this a little later on, koishii.” He ran the claws of his right hand down her side, relishing the gasp of surprise and pleasure as well as the renewed scent of her desire. “In the meantime, I’m sure we can find ways to keep ourselves occupied.”

Trying to maintain at least a little control over the sensations he was giving her, she gasped out, “Animal!”

He smirked, a little of his old attitude resurfacing. “Was that supposed to be a complaint?” he whispered, greatly enjoying the quiet moans she made as he followed the caress of his claws with soft kisses across her skin. He was amazed at how easily she responded to him, despite the fact that she had been untouched when he took her as his mate.

Still, she retained enough awareness of her surroundings to be able to turn her face to him, eyes slightly unfocused in her passion. “Gods, no!” she moaned, triggering the same kind of wave of desire in him that the taste of her blood had earlier that morning.

This time, though, there was no need to hold back. *  

It was the unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the gravel drive in front of the house that alerted the hanyou that the time for explanations had finally come. “Damn,” he muttered, “I didn’t expect them until a little later on.” Reaching out to his mate, he pulled her to him for a soft kiss before releasing her. “Come on, Kagome--I think you’re going to want to see this.”

While he dressed in a pair of snug black jeans and a deep blue silk shirt, she chose for herself a pair of khaki jeans and a light cotton sweater that she hoped wouldn’t irritate the wounds on her back too much. As she followed him into the next room, the phrase “eye candy” popped unbidden into her head--those jeans of his were really very snug--and she forced the thought away: something was going on here, and she would need a clear head to understand exactly what it was.

When they arrived at their immediate destination, she was surprised to see two complete strangers standing in the living room One of them, a tall man wearing an impeccable charcoal suit--could it really be an Armani?--smirked at the hanyou. “I hope we weren’t…interrupting anything.”

The other man, nearly as tall as the first, had thick, rusty hair that he wore tied into a long tail at the back of his head and bright blue eyes that sparkled with an inner glee at the woman who was standing there watching them. “Don’t be like that,” he said, his voice barely out of the adolescent range. “They haven’t even been together a whole day yet.”

With a nod at the younger red-haired man, the hanyou said only, “Okay, guys, you can drop the disguises now.”

The young redhead grinned and nodded. There was a sort of shimmer in the air, and Kagome found herself looking at a very familiar figure from the past. “Sesshoumaru?” Turning to her mate for an explanation, she caught sight of the other stranger. Suddenly recognizing the bright eyes and the long, bushy tail he sported, he squeaked, “Shippou?!?” Then her eyes rolled up and she dropped like a stone.

Fortunately, her new mate wasn’t entirely human. His hanyou reflexes caught her before she ever came close to hitting the floor.

She awoke to the sound of soft voices. Looking around, she could see Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, and Shippou engaged in what seemed to be a very serious conversation. “You all survived?”

Sesshoumaru gave her a cold look. “Of course we did,” he said before turning back to his younger half-brother. “How much have you told your bitch?”

“Hey!” she yelled, nearly overcome in a fit of righteous indignation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Once he realized the source of her belligerence, her mate stepped into the conversation. “He didn’t mean it like that, Kagome. Don’t forget--he’s an inuyoukai. For us, that word only means that you’re a mature female. You earned that title long before we ever became mates.”

Suddenly understanding both Sesshoumaru and her own husband’s fondness for addressing her that way, she smiled, “So, then, to a kitsune I’d be a vixen?”

The young adult Shippou nodded happily. “Of course.” As she stood up from the sofa on which she had been lying, the young youkai swept her into a huge hug. “Kagome, I missed you so much!”

She ruffled his hair as she used to do when he had been a child in her care, feeling a little strange at having to reach up to do so. “You’ve grown, Shippou-chan.” Looking into his shining eyes, she sobered instantly. “I don’t suppose you want me to call you that anymore.”

He thought about it for a fraction of a second, then shook his head. “You’re the closest thing to a mother I had after my parents were killed when I was just a kit. I don’t mind: it’s how you remember me.”

Sesshoumaru decided to step back in and steer the conversation back to the matter at hand. “I understand that you think that youkai are extinct.”

“Aren’t they? Except for you, I mean.”

Sesshoumaru nearly smiled, an expression she found a little disconcerting. “No. Actually, there are fewer youkai than there used to be--most of the lower forms seem to have died out, along with those that preyed on humans. Still, those able to assume a nearly human form and those able to generate illusions have learned to blend in quite well. In fact, the kitsune are probably the most influential of the youkai clans remaining in the world today--their illusion powers allow the rest to live among the humans around them.”

She was catching on rapidly. “So that’s why I’ve never seen any youkai--they’ve all been in disguise?”

“Exactly,” he replied. “You have miko abilities--haven’t you ever met somebody who seemed a little odd to you?”

“Of course,” she said. “Everybody’s had things like that happen.” Her voice trailed off as she suddenly understood what he was implying. “You mean all those times were youkai?”

“Maybe not,” her mate said, placing a possessive arm around her waist, “But most of them probably were. Youkai are everywhere--they live in just about every community on the planet. Youkai are working in every field you could think of.”

“I thought that most youkai hated humans. Don’t they kill them when they get the chance?”

Shippou grinned. “Not as often as you might think. Oh, one of them goes on a killing spree every now and again, but no more often than humans do. Most youkai just want to have their families and their jobs and be left alone.”

“But how can the youkai cover up the fact that they don’t age like humans do?” She was becoming intrigued in spite of herself.

Sesshoumaru’s smooth voice had not changed at all in the five centuries since she had seen him last. “Every couple of years most youkai will have their illusions updated by a kitsune. Things get rather more complicated when their aliases start to outlive their neighbors.” He paced across the room, trying to regain control of the conversation. Looking at his brother, he asked, “Have you completed the marking ritual?”

The hanyou smirked as he pulled his mate firmly against his chest from behind. “Of course. We made it a point to take care of that at the very first opportunity.”

The inuyoukai nodded slowly. “That will simplify everything, then. I had thought that it had been done when I first came in, but it was difficult to be sure--there is a certain…fragrance associated with newly-mated couples that makes determining the details uncertain at best.”

She still didn’t understand why the whole thing was so important. “I don’t get it--why is it important that youkai can identify us as mates?”

The hanyou sank into the cushions, pulling her down beside him. “It’s for your safety. Even though you don’t interact with large numbers of youkai, there are those who would think nothing of killing you--or worse. By making certain that they can clearly understand that we’re mated, I can keep you safe from that kind of thing. But,” he said, tracing the delicate line of her jaw with a single clawed finger, “That’s not the reason I was so eager to complete the ritual.”

At the woman’s curious look, Sesshoumaru took over the explanation, as he had had much more actual experience with the matter than his younger sibling. “In spite of certain changes mating with my brother is causing in you--such as your scent altering slightly to more closely resemble his--you have not become youkai. Since you are, and always will be, human, there will inevitably come a time when your mate will outlive you. The marking ritual will ensure that you will be reincarnated almost immediately after your death, and will allow Inuyasha to find you again once your reincarnation reaches physical maturity.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what good that will do. I mean, my reincarnation won’t have any of my memories, will she?”

Her mate pulled her tight against his body, stroking the hair that had always given him such comfort. “Not at first,” he said, glancing at his brother, “But after I find you again the memories will return quickly.”

She looked back and forth between the two brothers. “Are you sure? I mean, could this really work?”

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly. “I’m sure. My own mate has been returned to me in this way six times.”

Kagome’s mouth hung open for a fraction of a second. “Your mate?” she asked.

The hanyou nodded, clearly enjoying his mate’s surprise. “You’ve actually met her a couple of times. Remember Rin? The human girl who used to follow him around?”

Her surprise turned instantly to indignation. “You took that child as a mate? What’s wrong with you?!?”

The youkai shook his head in something very much like amusement. “I think that you are forgetting exactly how much time has passed, miko. Rin became a woman a number of years before I finally claimed her as my mate. It was difficult to wait so long, but I had to be certain that I was her true choice before I could speak.”

“Why didn’t you bring her with you? I would have liked to have seen her again.”

The youkai lord closed his eyes for a brief moment. When they reopened, she noticed that the golden depths seemed blank, without the fire that usually resided there. “I would have, but she passed on several years ago. Before you ask, it was old age that took her from me--she was more than ninety years old at the time, a respectable age, even in this world of medical miracles.” He seemed to brighten slightly as he continued, “She should be returning to me within the next two or three years.”

She couldn’t think of any reply to that. “But what about the youkai we knew--Myouga and Jinenji, and Kouga and Ayamae and the rest of their tribe, and Kagura and Kanna and Shiori, and Jaken and that cute little thunder youkai girl--what was her name? Did any of them survive?”

Her mate grinned broadly, and she realized that he had regained much of his youthful appearance after the haggard, emaciated look he had had when he had finally found her again. “Mostly. Most of them are living in disguise among the humans. I think that you’re talking about Souten, right? She’s still alive, and lives near Kyoto. Myouga still works for me, although I refused to let him in the house this week. There was really no need for him to go into disguise--he can usually manage to remain unnoticed. Jinenji lives on the other side of Tokyo, where he’s got a huge medical practice that specializes in treating youkai. Kagura’s still around, although we don’t see her much, but Kanna was killed in the bombing of Nagasaki. Kouga became a damned actor, of all things--he’s pretty popular right now because of that soap opera he’s on. His mate’s an athlete--she won medals in the last two Olympics. Those other two wolf youkai who used to follow Kouga around everywhere--Ginta and Hakkaku, I think--are doing research into preserving wildlife habitats. Shiori never became comfortable being around large numbers of humans--she lives up in the mountains north of here. Jaken still works for Sesshoumaru, in disguise, of course. Even Kirara is still around. She lives with Sango and Miroku’s descendants not too far from here.”

She shook her head in confusion. “Do you think it would be possible to get in touch with some of them? I’d really like to see them again.”

The two brothers looked at each other. Sesshoumaru shook his head. “We don’t encourage keeping in touch with each other--it’s too easy to be caught that way.”

“Does it really matter so much? I mean, what could happen?”

Shippou shook his head sadly. “Plenty. Every once in a while one of us is discovered. The fortunate ones manage to escape pretty much unhurt. There have been a few youkai killed by frightened humans.”

That piqued her curiosity. “But what happens to the ones that get caught?”

The kitsune shrugged. “They have to make a run for it. If they get caught, there’s a good chance that they’ll be killed, or locked up, or used for experiments of some kind.”

She was horrified. “Has that really happened?”

Her mate tightened his grip on her, surprised that he could feel her trembling in something very like suppressed rage. “All of those things have happened, koishii. It’s not being talked about, of course--all of the authorities keep pretty quiet about the existence of youkai so as not to create a panic. All of the information we have comes second- and third-hand, from people --of both kinds--who have seen these things happen.”

She turned to face him, looking up into his amber eyes. “So,” she said, “What are we going to do about it?”

The two brothers glanced at each other. While they had expected that she would have a strong reaction to the information, neither of them had foreseen her determination to fix the situation that she obviously thought of as being somehow broken.

Later that night, as her heartbeat finally began to slow to a normal speed, she glanced up at her husband’s face. “I’ve been thinking,” she said.

He looked at her from under raised eyebrows. “That wasn’t exactly my intention.”

She swatted his shoulder, laughing. “You know what I mean. How hard would it be to contact all the youkai--at least, those in the area around Tokyo?”

He shook his head in surprise. She really hadn’t changed at all from the first time he had met her on his home side of the well. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ever been tried.”

“Could you think about it? It might be important.” Somehow, she looked vaguely troubled, and that bothered him more than anything else she could have said. She had always been intuitive, from the first time they had met, and her hunches seemed to have grown in accuracy over the time they had spent together. Although he was not by nature especially trusting, when her intuition told him that something could be important, he was going to listen.

“I’ll talk to Sesshoumaru tomorrow. He’s got connections everywhere--he might know of a way. Now,” he said, releasing her, “Go to sleep. It’s been a long day for you.”

She hadn’t realized until that moment exactly how tired she was. With a yawn, she turned away from him, sinking into the pillows. Smiling as he curled up against her back, an arm around her waist almost as though afraid that something would snatch her from him, she drifted off to sleep.

The hanyou, however, lay awake for a long time, listening to her breathe and drinking in the scent that had come to mean home and comfort to him. He suddenly realized that her scent was beginning to change a bit, to become even more intoxicating than before. As he felt the warmth pool in the pit of his stomach, he realized what that scent was--his mate was going into heat. The thought came unbidden to him that they should perhaps spend the next few days apart, but his muscles betrayed that thought by tightening ever so slightly around the delicate form he held. This, he decided, could be a problem.

He realized that he would have to tell her when she awoke--he couldn’t bring himself to give her a pup without her knowledge. He had waited for her for far too long to risk everything by giving in to his uncontrolled desires. Still, he couldn’t help fantasizing about what any pups of theirs would be like. He very much hoped that they would resemble their mother more than their father--it would certainly make concealing what “differences” they might possess easier. In any case, he couldn’t quite shake the lingering image of a skinny girl child with long, dark hair, dark eyes flecked with gold, and two small triangular ears perched at the top of her head.

Smiling at the image his speculations conjured up, he closed his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, he took comfort in the unbreakable grip he had on his mate as well as in her scent that enveloped him much as his warmth surrounded her.

Kagome spent the second morning of her married life waking up alone. That fact alone was enough to tell her that something was not quite right. Slipping into the light silk robe she had left at the foot of the bed, she wandered out into the room in which they had met with Sesshoumaru and Shippou the day before. When she found the room empty, she returned to the bedroom before heading out the rear door to the wide porch overlooking the hot spring in which they had relaxed the previous morning.

Looking carefully around the landscape, she caught the slight motion of a white-furred triangular ear behind the vegetation screening the small pool. Returning to the house, she grabbed two large towels from the cabinet near the door, returning to the hot spring in something under a minute. “I missed you,” she said, dropping her robe and the towels before slipping into the water next to him.

His expression was impossible to read. “We have to talk.”

She frowned slightly. “Is this about the youkai?”

The hanyou shook his head, looking almost pained as he laughed softly. “No. Not this time.” He looked at her, her skin glowing slightly pink from the heat of the pool and the soft morning light. “Have you ever thought about pups?”

Remembering her misunderstanding with Sesshoumaru the previous afternoon, she suddenly realized that he wasn’t talking about household pets. Her already pink skin deepened with a furious blush. “Of course I have--every girl my age thinks about it. Why?”

He had always loved that unconscious reaction in her--the fact that she could blush so easily after all that they had seen and done and been through showed him a purity of spirit he envied greatly. This, he decided, was not going to be easy. “And? Did you want a family?”

She shook her head, thinking hard. “No, I never really wanted a family much--at least, not until I was much older. I had always expected that I would have some kind of career--either in medicine or a related field--and didn’t want to achieve that by shortchanging my family.” Noticing the droop of his ears and the slump of his shoulders, she continued, “And then I turned fifteen and was yanked through the well by that youkai…and I met you. Now, I can’t think of anything I want more. Why do you ask?”

He thought briefly about how best to explain the situation, then settled on the simple truth. “While you slept I noticed that your scent was starting to change.” At the blank look he received, he continued, “You’ve gone into heat. I had to tell you now--I didn’t want to give you a pup by accident.”

She looked at him in surprise. He sat completely still, staring into the water in front of him, except for the twitch of an ear that seemed to swivel in her direction so that he could easily hear the words he both anticipated and dreaded. “You mean we could start on a family right now? Really?”

He was more than a little surprised--he was absolutely shocked. “Don’t you think you’re a little young to be thinking about that? Besides, we’ve only been together a couple of days.”

“No,” she said, reaching up to rub the soft fur on the outside of his ears, “We’ve only been mated for a couple of days--we’ve been together for centuries. Sort of. Besides,” she continued, “I’m just a few weeks short of being eighteen--a lot of girls my age have families already.”

The amazement was clear in his voice. “You mean you actually want this?”

She giggled, suddenly realizing why he had seemed so uncomfortable about the entire matter. “Get serious! I’ve been dreaming about what your kids would look like for ages now. They’d be absolutely adorable! I just never expected that I would be anywhere in the picture.”

“But what will your mother say? She doesn’t know anything about the problems between humans and youkai in this new world. Could your family accept them and help us to keep them safe?”

She laughed out loud. “Are you kidding? I only hope that at least one of them has your ears--my mother would be so disappointed otherwise.” She looked at the golden glow of his eyes, standing up in the water. “Let’s go back inside.”

With a slightly glazed look in his eyes, the hanyou allowed himself to be led back to the house.

Although they had been indulging in their passions for each other for days, this was a different experience for them both. The knowledge that they could be deliberately creating a new generation of quarter youkai caused them to approach each other with a sort of reverence that was slightly different from the joyful abandon they had experienced before. With soft words and gentle touches they explored each other, giving and receiving the caresses that fanned their growing passion to a blazing fire.

A short time later, the hanyou looked down at the face of his mate. “I’m sorry, koishii. I didn’t want to make it so fast, but the thought that we could be starting a pup was more than I could stand.” A single clawed finger brushed the damp hair from her face. “I can try to do a little better job this time, I think.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Already? Don’t you have to rest a while first?”

He laughed softly giving her an appraising look that was only slightly less than a leer. “Did you think that this hanyou stamina of mine was only good for fighting?”

She laughed with him, reaching up to stroke his ears. His breath caught in his throat at the waves of sensation that her touches caused. His eyes began to sag shut as a deep rumbling sound started from the depths of his chest. She stared in surprise, thrilled that she could create the same kind of sensations in her new husband that he invariably caused in her. “I think I really like the sound of that.”

He crushed her to his chest, resting his chin on the top of her head. “Do you have any idea how much I need you in my life?”

She flashed a radiant smile, and he couldn’t quite restrain the surge of passion the look in her eyes created in him. “I think I do,” she said. “After all, you waited for more than five hundred years to be with me again. I think that’s why I want this so much--maybe if we have a family, we’ll never be separated again.”

He looked at her in surprise, frowning slightly. “You think I could ever leave you?”

She shook her head. “Not really. I guess I’m just a little insecure--I mean, this is like the happily ever after ending of a fairy tale. I keep expecting something to go horribly wrong.”

He sat up against the mound of pillows, pulling her closer so that she could rest her head against his chest. “I think we’ve already had our share of ‘horribly wrong,’ don’t you? Between being dragged away from your home to fulfill some legendary quest, all the dangers of my world, and me being such an ass so much of the time, I figure that you’ve been through more than most people could handle in a lifetime. You’re due for a little happiness. Besides,” he said, taking her hand in his to brush his lips against the very tips of her fingers, “I couldn’t leave you if I wanted to.”

She looked up in something like horror. “What do you mean, you couldn’t leave me?”

He shrugged, enjoying the way the motion rubbed her bare skin against his own. “It’s just the way I am. Inuyoukai mate for life. Sometimes they can take a second mate after the death of the first, but only if the original mating bond wasn’t sufficiently strong. That’s one of the reasons Sesshoumaru used to resent me so much. You’re the only mate I ever really wanted, and I think I’m safe in saying that our union is as strong as any I’ve seen. We don’t need pups to keep us together--we have each other for that. Of course, if you want a family right now, I think I can probably make the effort.”

She looked up into his amber eyes, noticing that he was trying to restrain his impulses with limited success.. “Of course I want a family. Even in this time, life is dangerous. If something happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do. At least, if we had…pups,” she said, smiling at his choice of words, “I’d still have a little piece of you left to hold on to.”

“Listen, koishii,” he said, “There’s something you have to understand. Even if something somehow manages to take me from you, I’ll always look after you. If necessary, I’d find a way to come back through the gates of hell itself to protect you.”

“In that case,” she said, smiling as she ran a hand down his chest, watching with satisfaction as he shivered from the coolness of her fingers against his skin, “I think that we should give that pup every possible chance to make an appearance.”

Pulling her slight body on top of him, he smirked a little. “I knew you’d see things my way.”

It was not yet daylight when Inuyasha was alerted by a noise on the porch outside the rear part of the building. Moving slowly to keep from waking his mate--how the hell had the human girl managed to keep up with him for the entire day and well into the night?--he slipped into his robe and stepped outside to investigate.

It was not a pretty sight. The young kitsune lay on the porch in his natural form, battered and bleeding. “Shippou!” When the limp figure managed to get one eye partly open, he continued, “What the hell happened?”

Although the young youkai’s voice was audible, it looked like he was in a lot of pain. “It was my own fault. I was just walking around the streets, and I heard what sounded like a fight a couple of streets away. I decided to take a look, and saw a bunch of guys trying to rob a woman not much older than Kagome. There were only four of them, so I figured I could take care of it. One of them got to me before I could finish the job and bashed me across the back of the head. Since I’m a kitsune, I maintain my own illusion--when I was knocked out, it disappeared, and they could all see me for what I was. It was only the arrival of a couple of humans out walking together that let me get away.” He finally managed to sit up, holding his aching head in both hands. “Sorry. This was the only place I could think of to go--I better get out of here before somebody finds me here.”

“Like hell you will.” The two men looked up to see Kagome standing in the doorway, wrapped in a light silk robe. “You’re going to stay right here until you heal and we can find you a safe place to go.”

While the hanyou brought the wounded youkai into a second of the house’s five bedrooms, his mate went for the first aid kit she had insisted he install in the kitchen. Although it had been quite a while since she had had any practice in treating injuries of this caliber, she realized that it was rather like riding a bicycle--once you learned how, you never really forgot. The young youkai flinched a little as she cleaned a particularly nasty cut above his left eye. “Sorry, Shippou-chan. It’s been a while since I’ve had to do this, and I’m out of practice.”

She helped him into the bed, pulling the relatively thin but warm quilt up over him. “I’ll sit here with you until you fall asleep if you like.”

Suddenly realizing what his arrival had probably interrupted, he shook his head. “That’s okay, Kagome. I don’t want to be a bother. You guys go ahead and do whatever you were doing before I got here.”

“Remember,” she said, walking to the door and turning out the light, “You’re to sleep until you wake up naturally. I don’t want you moving around any more than absolutely necessary. If you need anything, we’re right down the hall.” She caught sight of the slight shift of his eyes and continued, “And don’t even think about leaving until we have a chance to sort this all out.”

Before returning to his own bed, Inuyasha stopped off in the living room. “I have to call Sesshoumaru about this. There might be something we can do.”

When the hanyou finally reached his mate, he shook his head slowly. “It looks like you were right after all. As it turns out, there isn’t really any system in place to handle this kind of situation. Sesshoumaru knows some people who might be able to help Shippou get set up with a new identity, but it’ll take a little time. I don’t expect we’ll be seeing him before afternoon at best.” He dropped his robe to the floor and slid under the covers. “Now. Where were we?”

She looked at him with an odd expression. “What do you suppose he meant about doing whatever we were doing before he got here?”

He looked away from her, ears twitching in embarrassment. “He’s not a kid anymore, Kagome. He can smell what’s been going on here just about as well as I can. I think it’s safe to say that he understands that we’ve been trying to start a pup.” Watching the flush creeping up her neck to her hairline, he continued, “He won’t make anything of it--you’re pretty important to him. In fact, I’m willing to bet that he never mentions it again.”

“Well,” she said, reaching out to wrap her arms around his waist, “If all goes well, he can be one of the first to know in six or seven weeks.”

He looked down at the top of her head in something like surprise. “Why wait so long?”

She shrugged. “That’s about how long it takes to find out.”

“Not for me.” At her puzzled expression, he continued, “I should be able to smell the changes in your scent within a day or two after you conceive.”

“You know,” she said, thinking about the possible repercussions of what they had been doing, “I think that there may be a problem--are there any doctors we could trust to supervise this whole thing? I don’t want our pup to be labeled as having some kind of birth defect--or worse, being recognized as part youkai.”

He smiled, already recognizing the overwhelmingly protective nature of the female for her family. “I’m pretty sure we can manage something. Remember what we were talking about? There are youkai just about everywhere you can think of--we’ll be able to find somebody who can be discrete.”

Despite her worry over the injured Shippou, the human woman was tired. It had, after all, been a very long day. Her mate could feel her trying to stifle a yawn. “Go to sleep,” he whispered. “I won’t let him get away in the meantime.” Pulling her closer as he eased them back into the pillows, he let his slightly warmer body temperature soothe her into a deep, dreamless sleep.

He lay still a long time, holding her while she slept. He had a lot to think about. She had, he realized, been right--there should be a plan in place to protect those youkai whose disguises had been penetrated. It would, of course, have to address more than the relatively simple matter of finding them a new place to live. They would also have to have some mechanism in place for providing them with new identities, complete with all the required documentation--starting with a birth certificate--that was so necessary in this century. Of course, there would also have to be some place where they could hide out while the arrangements were being made….

By morning the injured Shippou looked a lot better. She had forgotten exactly how rapidly youkai could heal. Even though he was physically able to leave, she refused to allow it until they could talk to Sesshoumaru about setting up some kind of system to prevent this from ever happening again. The three sat around the table, eating the breakfast the hanyou prepared. Kagome had been surprised to learn that he was a very good cook, but as he explained it, his mother had taught him the basics when he was very young because she knew that people wouldn’t give a damn whether or not he starved to death, and he had found that he very much liked the results, so he taught himself more as time passed.

“You said that Sesshoumaru probably wouldn’t be showing up until this afternoon, right?”

The hanyou nodded. “That’s right. He has to contact some people about fixing Shippou up with a new identity, and that usually takes some time.”

“More youkai?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. From what he said on a couple of occasions, these guys are human enough, just not the kind you would want to introduce to your mother, if you know what I mean.”

She shrugged. “I don’t care who they are. If they can do the job, the rest doesn’t matter, does it?”

Once again he was surprised by the resilience of his mate. He was reminded of the numerous times she had reached elbow-deep into the stinking guts of some youkai to retrieve a fragment of the Shikon no Tama, or when she had fired one of her purifying arrows into one of them, knowing that it would destroy it, simply because it was a threat to one of her friends. He didn’t much like the idea of bringing her into contact with the kind of individuals Sesshoumaru sometimes associated with, but he didn’t see any other way--after all, the entire plan had really been her idea. However, he didn’t for a second believe that she could hold her own, even in that kind of company.

Actually, they didn’t really have very long to wait. Sesshoumaru and his companion, a tall, thin-faced man with a scar running down the left side of his neck, arrived shortly after noon. Once the five were comfortably seated in the living room, they got directly down to the matter at hand. Sesshoumaru’s human companion, who called himself simply Ryu, had all of the necessary documentation for Shippou’s new identity.

Once that was resolved and Ryu stood to leave, Kagome shook her head. “Not yet. There’s something else.”

Without the slightest flicker of surprise, Ryu returned to his seat, waiting for the details of the next matter that would require his attention. Kagome shook her head. “I don’t know exactly what they told you about what just happened here, but you can bet that there’s probably more involved than you were told. We have reason to think that there will be a lot more cases of this kind coming up in the future. We need to have a system in place to set up individuals--and even whole families--with new identities quickly.”

The human glanced at the two men flanking the tiny girl. “It’ll be expensive.”

The taller of the men, the one he’d worked with in the past, looked at him coolly. “We can afford it.”

Ryu nodded slowly. “Then we can do it. Our computer experts are tapped into official records all over the planet. We can arrange whatever you need with only a few hours’ notice.”

The woman nodded slowly. “How do we contact you when the need arises?”

“Sesshoumaru knows the details. He can fill you in later.” Ryu stood again. “If there’s nothing else….”

As the hanyou watched him leave, he turned back to his brother. “That will take care of the problem, but we’ll still need to have some kind of plan in place to find and pick up youkai in trouble.”

He turned in surprise at the quiet voice speaking behind him. “I don’t think you can.”

Kagome turned to the young kitsune in surprise. “What do you mean, Shippou?”

He shook his head miserably. “Most youkai won’t ask for help when they’re in trouble. They think that they should be able to handle anything on their own.”

Kagome nodded slowly. “I know the type,” she said with a wry glance at her mate. “What can we do to get them to come to us?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head. “All we can do is spread the word that we’re willing to help exposed youkai and wait for them to come to us.”

Kagome smiled. “Do either of you know anything about American history?”

“The underground railroad, right?” At her look of surprise, the hanyou smirked. “Hey, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I started studying anything that happened to catch my interest. If I’d gone to regular classes, I’d probably have three or four university degrees by now.”

Swearing to herself never to underestimate him again, she nodded. “Exactly.” At Sesshoumaru’s confused look, she explained, “The underground railroad was what they called the network of people that helped escaped slaves reach safety in America’s nineteenth century. People would hide them in basements, barns, churches, or anywhere else they could until the searchers passed by and they could move along to the next stage.”

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly. “Through my business holdings I can provide the exposed youkai with travel options and employment opportunities. We’ll still need to find a place to hide them while the arrangements are being made.”

The hanyou looked up suddenly. “Why not hide them here? This house backs up on a small forest. We could put a few small cabins in there and nobody would ever find them unless they knew where to look.”

Kagome nodded in satisfaction. “And I think I figured out how to get the word out. Remember what you told me about Jinenji having a medical practice that specialized in youkai? We could ask him to alert all his patients and have them tell everybody they know. It shouldn’t take very long before every youkai in the region knows about their options.”

Her mate grinned broadly. “I’ll call him in a little while and make an appointment--with any luck, we can talk to him about it later on today.”

She looked t him blankly. “Why not just tell him about it on the phone?”

“Because,” Sesshoumaru said, “Explaining the arrangements we have made is only one of the reasons the two of you will need to visit Jinenji.” With a brisk nod to the pair, he turned and walked out of the door.

Shippou, mumbling something about finding something to eat, vanished in the direction of the kitchen.

Now that the two were completely alone, the woman turned to her mate for an explanation. “Just what was that all about?”

He pulled her to him, brushing his lips across her forehead in a gesture that he had come to enjoy as much as she did. Inhaling deeply, he noted that her scent had become even more complex and binding than it had been before. Catching her earlobe in his teeth, he murmured, “Remember how we spent all of yesterday?”

Realizing that the young kitsune was only two rooms away, she bit back her moan of pleasure, settling for a deep sigh instead. “How could I forget?” she whispered.

Lifting her effortlessly, he bent his head to kiss her thoroughly. When he set her back on her feet, he grinned. “I think it safe to say that our efforts were successful. Maybe,” he said, smiling softly, “You should call your mother and tell her.”

She simply looked at him, trying to absorb what he had said. “You’re sure?”

He nodded. “I’ve never been through this before, but it’s the only thing I can think of that could account for the changes in your scent I’ve been picking up. Do you mind?”

“Gods, no! I can hardly wait!”

“Well,” he said, crushing her to him and running his hands lightly up and down her back, “I’m afraid you’ll have to. These things take time, after all.”

She reached up to run her fingers through the long silver hair that had always fascinated her. “It’s all real, isn’t it? I mean, it’s seemed like a dream ever since you came back to me, but it’s really happening.”

He released her, taking her chin in his clawed hand so that she could look directly into the golden-amber eyes shining with tenderness and passion. “It’s real,” he said. “And it always will be.”

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