A/N: Thank you all for following my fanfics and I into another new year. I love that you still want to know what comes next :3

Hope you enjoy the chapter, read, review, and feel free to message me if you have any questions.

WARNING: Viewer discretion advised, mature/adult content and fluff ahead!

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Ayame slouched in her saddle and let the horse plod along at its own pace in the hot afternoon sun. She pitied the animal for having to make such a journey without any breaks at a comfy stable. Hell, she pitied herself for having to make this journey; it made her bitchy every time. Perhaps she just wasn't made for travel…

She snorted to herself and had just shut her eyes to attempt to catch a short wolf nap when she heard movement coming from ahead of her. Sesshomaru's guards finally coming for Kagome? No…as the footsteps grew closer she could distinguish the sound into the noise of a single being. Sesshomaru would not send only one. And she knew that gait…

SHH-SHH-SHH-SHH-SHH-Shhhhhhhhhh! Followed by a quiet thud…. SHH-SHH-SHH-SHH-SHH-SHH-Shhhhhhhhhhhhh! Thud.

She barely got her horse off the road and hidden between two boulders before the whirlwind sound of the demon's movements were right on top of her. Her inner demon took hold and she stilled, listening and waiting for what she knew was coming; her ears, nose, and eyes scanning for the hanyou.

There. He was just a blur of long white hair, a bare chest, and dirty black hakama pants.

His scent was strong on the breeze he had created in his wake and she knew without a doubt that Inuyasha's demon had taken hold and he was headed for his mate. She also knew he smelled of old blood, dank dungeons, perspiration, and a higher level of stress than she had ever sensed from her Lord before.

"Fuck," she said softly as she guided her horse back onto the path and looked forward in the direction of the still swirling dust from the hanyou's passing; impressive, she wished her legs could kick up a cloud of dust that size...

She glanced towards the direction she had just come from, and even with a clear view of the path towards the bridge she was having trouble tracking his movements, they were so incredibly fast. She had never seen him move like that before either.

Hesitating only a moment, Ayame turned her horse back towards the fortress. She needed to trade her mount for another, leave Inuyasha's horse, and get supplies; only and then she would follow Inuyasha's tracks to keep her eye out for her demon Lord and friend of sorts.

Even if she followed him as fast as the horses could run, he would outdistance her easily at his current speed and she would arrive to Kagome's side days after the mate-crazed half demon.

She silently bid Kagome good luck but smirked a little to herself. His mate was the only creature on the planet safe from his temper and his claws right now, so Kagome truly had little to worry about, Ayame just hoped he hadn't exhausted the human into some type of coma before she arrived to pull him off the priestess. She laughed out loud; perhaps these few days would convince the priestess that she had many many good uses for a demon Lord besides just protection from other demons. If she was going to exchange horses then she could afford to push these as hard as she could without wearing them completely down, she clicked her tongue and touched her heels to her mount's sides, it was all encouragement that the fiery mare needed to take off at top speed towards her stables.

Kagome met dawn's first rays walking with a small troop of soldiers and two trading caravans who were all headed in the direction of her home, but only as far as the next big village.

Home…

Home? The word seemed wrong for that place that had truly been her home for most of her life.

She shouldered the few items she carried on her journey and forced herself to clear her mind again. No thoughts of home or elsewhere for now. Another breath, and she could feel her morning tea spreading through her trembling and tense limbs…easing the muscles from their knots and slowing her shaking. She would be in a serious bind once it was gone; she had already started asking subtle questions as to whether anyone had ever heard of a demon tea. So far her search was fruitless. Some part of her was ok with the idea of being 'forced' to go back and see Inuyasha once a month or so after she returned to…her village.

A bird chirped happily at a neighboring bird flying past and Kagome glanced at the display with a smile. She had missed the sounds of birds merrily playing together during her stay in the demon fortress; so there was something for her to be thankful to have back. Perhaps she just needed to remind herself once or twice each day that she was thankful to be free and on her way home. As opposed to seeing Rin's innocent face shining through every child's smiling face that she encountered or comparing the width of every man's shoulders to those of her hanyou.

Yes she would see him again, that she knew now, and it gave her a measure of comfort. She wasn't sure when, how often, or how she was supposed to behave when she did…but she did look forward to that time. The knowledge that it would come eventually should be enough for her…it should be all she needed to wake up and greet each day sure that she was making the right choices.

She sighed and relaxed into the monotony of the long day of walking ahead.

A little more than half of the day had passed though before the quiet murmur and shuffling of the group was disrupted by shouting and movement from the forest ahead. The sound of breaking branches and trees rustling increased, moving closer to them, only to be followed by a pained guttural roar that had them all freezing in their tracks. It was a demon; she could sense its energy now but she didn't sense any of the malevolence that usually came with the demons she fought.

Faint shouts of 'kill it now' and combined with a cacophony of other yells and grunts. An ear splitting female scream pierced the air and suddenly there was silence.

By now the two wagons pulled to the side and half the soldiers agreed to stand guard while the other half went to check out the source of the noises.

Kagome left her few belongings with an elderly woman and slid her gifted arrow quiver over her now unburdened shoulders while she clutched the ancient bow with her left hand. She hurried off through the brush as fast as they could without running blindly through the forest, heedless of whether or not any of the soldiers with her were following for backup, and soon came to a clearing where Kagome was stunned enough to stop in her tracks.

"It's a priestess!" a man shouted to the others as she stared at the mess they had made of the clearing. The grass had been coated in a sheen of blood that reflected black in the moonlight perfectly and started igniting a strange feeling within Kagome.

"Thank the Gods! She can purify this demon and its spawn and we can sleep safe again!" the leader shouted to his ragtag group of eight men bearing spears, bows, and swords. They all cheered as she slowed but continued to move numbly towards them as she took in her surroundings and tried to make sense of what she was seeing…

But it was not the men, covered in wounds and blood of their own that made Kagome's chest tighten. It was the sight of the enormous white moth demon, its own lifeblood showing up starkly against its smooth iridescent white skin… Kagome had never seen such a pretty demon, even though its head was a bit more of an upside down triangle shape than an circular one, even though its peering eyes were solid black with no white, even though it bore two bushy antennas as long as Kagome's arms on either side of its head, she was beautiful.

One of the paper-thin antennas had been broken a few inches out from the demon's long silky white hair, leaving the appendage hanging from its owner. Even if the moth could recover from the rest of the damage…the loss of an antenna would be crippling if the demons were anything like the animals that they were likened to.

Kagome clenched her weapons as she tried to decide how to face this issue.

One of the men who had helped kill the beast picked up part of a severed wing that was torn and still twice his size, "Can we take the parts we want, Priestess? Is it safe?" He ran his hand over the thin velvet of the wing, it so thin but surprisingly sturdy. Indeed, any woman given such a fabric would be enchanted with it…as long as she didn't know where it came from, Kagome thought to herself.

The men all looked at her for an answer. Kagome slowly walked over to the fallen demon and was startled when a quiet breath rattled from between her thin lips. Two arrows pierced the side of the demons neck alone, how could it still be living after being shot full of arrows, had its wing torn off, one of her antenna broken and bleeding too, she still had a few spears embedded in her flesh that she had fallen on and the men couldn't retrieve.

The black eyes locked on Kagome's and she whispered the words, "My babies…"

Kagome instantly felt the world start to spin, where were the babies? And the father? She looked up at the crew of men responsible, "Did you kill her mate as well?"

Several of the men nodded proudly, "He was nearly twice as big as this bitch! Took out six good men before he went down. This one only seemed to want to flee. We searched for eggs or offspring but haven't found anything…"

Kagome nodded, like the words made sense even though she was horrified by her own people, "What did the demons do that started this hunt?"

The leader of the group stepped up, "Not used to this much blood eh? You'll be fine back at the village. As for what started it all…white moths started appearing from everywhere until our forests were filled with them. The children were afraid of the insects, afraid that the demons would somehow want revenge, and the adults were all worried of what would happen to our crops if many more of the bugs came." He paused to knock the moth's wing from his man's hand, "Leave it. We don't need anything attracting the insects again." He looked back to Kagome, completely unapologetic, "We knew there were winged demons in the wood and assumed the moths would lead us to them, sure enough they were all gathered around this one."

The man had no idea that this was all so wrong.

The female on the ground coughed, spraying Kagome's leg with blood by accident and prompting one of the men to stab his spear into where her one attached wing was laid across the ground, pinning it there like a scientist pins down a bug to study it.

The female demon didn't have the energy to fight it; she was dying from numerous wounds including one across her stomach that was far too gaping to ever be recovered from.

"So they didn't attack the village first?" Kagome said softly, biting her tongue to keep from snapping at the man who was still idly poking holes in the paper thin wing.

Several of the men looked sheepish but the leader didn't back down.

"Their little 'friends' had begun eating our crops and one of the village boys has gone missing," he growled at Kagome.

Kagome just nodded, as if his reasoning was sound and had indeed called for the death of a family of demons.

A porcelain white arm, longer and thinner than her own, shakily reached over to touch Kagome's leg. The men all started to react but Kagome silenced them with a glare and the wave of her hand, "This female is already dying, I think you've all done plenty. Take no part of the bodies home…it's not safe. "

The men started to murmur but thankfully also started to gather their weapons and walk back into the woods as one, some still talking excitedly about their hunt.

Kagome dropped to her knees once she was sure all the men from the hunting party had gone. She glanced over her shoulder at the two soldiers that had come with her as a guard. "Go back to the caravan, I'll gather the body and set it afire, then I'll catch up with you when I can."

They both looked a little dubious about leaving her alone, off the road, in the woods, by herself to do such dirty work. But she simply looked blankly at them until they too had walked away.

"Where are the babies?" she asked the female, unsure if the creature was still even breathing.

Her double eyelids blinked and she tried to move those reed-like arms to her side where a particularly nasty blade had dug into her.

Kagome was confused, "I thought they were already born?"

The white skinned demon shook her head just a fraction of an inch and touched her hand to Kagome's forearm.

In a cathedral made only by her mate's hands and his magic, with the green branches of willow trees and a few other trees that gave off a soothing scent in the breeze, the female draped herself across the softest bed her mate had ever made her. She smiled happily to herself and fanned her big wings opened and closed over where she lay across the enormous spongey mound of moss; this would be her and Shin's third attempt to reproduce. She petted gently at the darker gray patch of hardened skin that protruded from her abdomen. Very soon the little ones would be developed enough that she could take the egg sac from where it was attached to her and it would be self sustaining, and it would grow, and her babies would be plentiful as long as she could protect them. It wouldn't be like the other times; she would keep them safe. A tear slid down her cheek and she let it drop in honor of the babies she had had that had never even taken their first breath. One egg sac lost in a fire that had been started by humans and burnt down most of the woods. The second sac, nearly twenty years later, had been stolen when she was sleeping by a hungry bird demon and had no doubt been a rare delicacy to its own young.

Their kind was dying out. Too easy for humans to spot and too easy for other demons to slaughter. Their bodies had not been shaped to offer them much defense, so many demons had scathingly informed her that she should already be dead too…that hers and Shin's people were a race for times of peace and only times of peace. They'd had no choice but to leave the demon territory; the price for being away from humans was the exponentially higher number of predatory demons in the demon lands.

Their future now rested with this sweet tiny bundle, filled with nearly five hundred tiny eggs…but they were so fragile and delicate. At least fifty probably wouldn't survive hatching and crawling from within the sac. Another hundred would probably be picked off before their first birthday; that first year they had to learn so fast how to survive and what to be wary of…she would consider herself a great success if a hundred of them survived them made it through the chrysalis phase of their lives and ten survived to reach their adult form around their twentieth year…

Please. This time. Let them live. She looked up at the sunny canopy of her den and blinked back tears. She had to be strong this time.

Tiny white moths even smaller than one of her eyes had gathered around her by the millions to celebrate the conceiving of another generation of their very old and rare demon counterparts, as they did every time she started building the egg sac. They seemed to sense her sadness and many chose to perch themselves across her arms and legs while others danced about in the breeze created by her enormous wings and still others picked up strands of her hair so that they could tease her and play with her…

Kagome sucked in a breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding while the female had given her the vision of her happy life. The priestess glanced down at the demon's abdomen but saw only a long, light gray patch of skin and the large wound in her side that was still bleeding freely. There was no egg sac.

"It's gone," Kagome whispered to the female, feeling guilty because it was her own ignorant people that had caused so much pain on this day.

The female shook her head and went to touch the jagged wound again.

The priestess frowned. There was something she was missing and the moth demon was too far gone to explain anymore. She leaned closer; it looked like the skin had been torn, not cut by a blade.

Her eyes widened as a horrific thought occurred to her. She eased her hands over the wound, unsure of what to do, but when the female on the ground coughed weakly and gave half a nod, Kagome let one of her hands slide into the warm human-like torso of the female. Her nimble fingers encountered a few soft things that could only be organs, but then she felt something soft and fibrous that felt almost as if it were made of hair.

Kagome pulled softly and stared in both awe and horror at the blood soaked egg sac now cradled in her hands, just smaller than the size of her own skull.

"Now what?" Kagome asked the female, who upon seeing the priestess cradling her most treasured possession had shut her eyes. A tear still slipped past her defenses and fell down her cheek and onto the blood-slick grass below her.

The demon gave no more signs that she could hear Kagome and the priestess watched quietly, the egg sac on a piece of cloth drying in her lap. Kagome held the demon's hand until she felt all of the essence of the demon's spirit had left.

With a numb mind she wrapped the egg sac in more cloth to protect it and started to pick up the pieces of the demon's body so that she could burn it. The female had been very happy and full of hope recently, she deserved more than to be picked over by crows. It wasn't until her vision had gone completely blurred that she realized that she was crying as she performed her task.

She missed Inuyasha so much and this was not the perfect life that she had remembered…she ached for him and for the little moths soon to be born who would have no mother nor father to guide them through their lives.

With numb hands and her heart feeling as if it was breaking within her chest, she lit a small fire and transferred the flame to the gathered pile of pieces of the demon moth's corpse. The orange flame immediately spread and grew; it seemed to like the taste of moth…

Kami, the demon's torso looked so similar to that of a human's. Though longer and thinner, sporting an extra set of arms and covered in the last of her life's blood, she still resembled a human… truly, her murderers shared more with this creature than they could ever know.

Kagome turned to the side and wretched as she cried silent tears and the female moth burned brightly under the unending black sky. What the hell was she going to do with five hundred tiny demon moths hanging around her? Hope no one noticed? Shit.

By nightfall on his second day of freedom, the hanyou's wild eyes landed on the bridge linking the two sides of the huge gape before him. He slowed but kept his pace quick as he scented the air for enemies.

He smelled only the faint scent of the female wolf demon and the heartbreakingly sweet scent of his mate's trail. She had reached the humans long before he could close the distance between them. A growl of possessiveness rumbled up from his chest and his muscles pumped with effort as he doubled his pace and jumped over the bridge in a single bound.

He didn't slow when he landed again and his feet hit the soil of the human's territory. Nothing would stop him from finding his mate and sinking…sinking his nails into the luscious flesh of her ass, sinking his teeth into her neck as he held her beneath him, and sinking his cock back into that wet heat between her trembling thighs.

The hanyou pushed his body hard to maintain its breakneck speed. His ears constantly flicked in circles, checking for any sounds to indicate the approach of another. His nostrils flared and locked on her scent so that he wouldn't lose the trail. Every part of him was running on overdrive…but his mind seemed to be in a fog. He knew only one thing: he had to get to her.

For two days she had agreed to toil with a farmer and his young pregnant wife in their rice fields before catching a ride with him to take the grain to a small village to the north of this city where she had been on a few other occasions. It stood only a 9 or 10 days ride east of her home village. By the end of that second day she was so grateful for the knowledge that she barely resisted the urge to weep.

Kagome's skin had felt overly sensitive, heated, and almost painful all damn day. Her clothes scraped against her skin like sand paper throughout all of the day's chores and now she felt positively rubbed raw everywhere the material had touched.

She had quickly slid shut her room door and doused her light before tearing at her binding clothes until she was completely free of them. Perhaps her monthly time was upon her? Since her imprisonment she had lost all sense of time and when it was due…but it was a poor explanation for such a burning discomfort all over her body; this seemed so much worse than anything she had felt up to this point.

Since she had been entrusted with it, Kagome had rolled the fragile egg sac from the female moth up in several layers of cloth and kept it safe among her belongings. Always she kept it away from any prying eyes or straying feet that could lead to any further danger to the dark red-stained sac. She checked on it each morning, night, and maybe once during the day if she got a break long enough. Granted, the sac contained hundreds of demons that may one day cause some type of issue for humans…but it also contained a mother's hope for her unborn young.

When she closed her eyes and held the now macabre, red sac, she could feel the faint flares of life within it. They teased at her heart strings then, just as they did now each time she held them. The same night she brought them home was the same night that she resolutely decided that she would do all she could to make that female moth, whose name she didn't even know, the proud mother she should have been. The priestess was uncertain about many things but on this she was sure; these little demons were as innocent and deserving of her protection as any human babe, and she would give it to them as long as they had need of her.

Gently she refolded the sac in its wrappings and put it away out of sight before addressing her own discomfort. Using a pitcher of water for drinking, she poured some onto the cloth of the clothing she had shed after entering her room, and she used it to slowly wipe off her body. The cold water was a welcome shock to her perspiring and achy skin.

The priestess had bathed her entire body twice in the cool water before she finally pulled on her loose sleeping gown and laid down to attempt to rest. She was so restless and sore that she feared she would never get to sleep.

The soft nightgown felt unusually abrasive and she once more shed all of her clothing. Finally she could breathe.

She blushed in the dark. Even though her sleeping room was entirely private, she so rarely chose to sleep bare. In fact she hadn't even really considered it before…Inuyasha.

As sleep slowly started to tighten its grip on her, more thoughts of her 'mate' came unbidden to her mind. She rolled over in an attempt to get more comfortable and found that this new position was slightly uncomfortable for her arm…Kagome tossed and turned even as sleep took control of her completely…

Kagome was back with him. With Inuyasha.

The stranger had been right; he was loving her like she had never left…but with a fervor that would be more appropriate for a man starved. His mouth was on one of her breasts, his tongue licking and pulling her peaked nipple into his ravenous mouth. One of his hands pinched harshly at the peak of her other breast, while his other hand moved down her body. His claws scratching lightly over her skin until the appendages were digging into her thighs to separate them. She moaned.

She was nothing but a bundle of happily stimulated nerve endings and she was helpless but to let her legs fall open at his touch. She was appalled that her body so easily gave in to him but could do nothing to stop it. Wanted to do nothing. One of his fingers delved inside her and she arched, pinned underneath his heavy form, unable to do anything besides toss her head and pant. He felt so good. Like coming home after months of journeying…

He shuffled above her and she felt him repositioning her, rolling her onto her stomach. He made her feel like a tiny doll when he moved her like that. She opened her mouth to complain just as he abruptly lifted her hips into the air, forcing her to hold her weight on her knees.

Something thick and blunt nudged at her entrance where his fingers had been only moments before.

"Hmm…do it Inuyasha…please…" surely that was not her voice?

He growled and his claws dug into her hips looking for the most firm hold. She mewled and glanced over her shoulder to study his features. His beautiful red eyes…

Kagome blinked. Inuyasha's eyes were supposed to be golden!

"Inuyasha?" she heard herself say it, the word echoing through her borrowed room at the farmer's home. He was really here. He was really…pressing against her opening…

Kagome threw back her head to scream as Inuyasha sheathed himself within her for the first time in over a week, but a cloth was already being stuffed into her gaping mouth. She started to cough only to freeze as Inuyasha put his hand over her mouth to keep the cloth there.

With her heart racing in her chest and the sound of her own blood thundering through her veins, she looked at him in confusion.

"Bite down on it," he suggested in a gravelly voice as he found his grip on her hips again and his nails sank punishingly deep into her. "Unless you want an audience?"

Inuyasha didn't wait for a response as he slid backwards, pulling nearly completely out of his mate before tugging her roughly back onto him as he slammed forward.

The dull, rapid thuds of their bodies meeting were quiet enough that only a human walking directly past her room door would hear it. Something his mate should be extremely grateful for. It wasn't until he had slipped into her room unseen and scented that she had barely even touched hands with any males that she had come into contact with, that he had calmed enough to even think to grant her that mercy.

Her hands were fisted into her blankets and her hair had long since fallen over her face where she was pressed into her mat on the floor, but his mate wasn't offering any complaints. Her body was dripping wet and still smelled faintly of him from their last interaction.

This pleased the beast within him and he quickened his rhythm, using thigh and abdominal muscles hardened from years of battles to pound into her with precision. Willing his cock to reach deeper inside her every time their hips collided and she gave another muffled cry of pleasure. With a growl of victory, he felt his tip hit the end of her channel. Each time he pressed within her again he was filling her to capacity and relentlessly pressing further.

His mate was desperately clutching her sheets trying to find any form of an anchor to keep from being pushed any further forward as he hit her like a hurricane, again and again. He took pity and leaned over her until he was on all fours above her, allowing her to use his own forearms as her anchor on either side of her head while he braced his torso's weight with them and kept fucking her for all he was worth.

From the new position he couldn't pull her hips back against him, causing him to lose some of the range of motion that had helped establish the rhythm of their bodies meeting but he made up for it by shortening his stroke even further and rocketing up the speed with which he was moving within her.

Kagome's body locked up as she reached her climax and her cries grew loud enough that he would no longer guarantee that they wouldn't attract any witnesses…but still he held on. Desperately griping his mate against him as if he never intended to let go, his rhythm was suddenly gone and he was building towards his own peak. With his priestess's body limp underneath his, he sunk himself as deeply into her as he could and gave himself permission to embrace heaven and release. His nose told him that her fertile time was coming soon but not yet upon them; however, that didn't make the act any less symbolic for his inner demon. It always planted its seed with purpose and intent…that would be another issue that his priestess would have been happier not to have to deal with…

Gently he pulled from within her and laid her down on her side on her bed mat. She was completely unconscious and covered in perspiration, causing her hair to stick to her skin in clumps near her forehead, temples, and down her spine. He used her discarded clothing to gently wipe her skin until she was dry for the most part; it wouldn't do to leave his fragile mate damp in the cool night air, he wouldn't be able to fight a cold off for her…

Without questioning his instinct, he lay down behind her and lifted her likely-tender leg just high enough that when he scooted up close to her back, his still hard cock had a straight path to her entrance.

She moaned in her sleep as he sheathed himself once more inside her velvety glove, but he settled down for his first restful sleep in a little over a week. His human side was aware again and he knew he would need to be out of her room by morning…but he needed to stay with her for now. He needed to make sure that she was so saturated with his scent and seed that he would be ok letting her slip from his grasp again in the morning.

He carefully leaned over and tugged her sheet up over them, he would warm her from one side but he wanted to make sure she didn't get cold anywhere he wasn't touching…

The same claws that he used to viciously shred his enemies, he now used to gently tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear and out of her face. What was this feeling, he mused to himself, already seeing everything clearer. His mate was like cold water poured over him, washing away the red haze that had clouded his vision and thoughts for the past week.

What was this feeling?

He had to leave her again in the morning…and that terrified him and angered him. He would take her body over and over throughout this night though…and that comforted him a little. But this nagging feeling…this fear of his delicate female catching a cold…it was an uneasy feeling deep in his gut…it was something like the vulnerability he had felt as a child…

A memory rose to the surface of this mind and he shut his eyes to embrace it as he had often done when he was rotting in his brother's dungeon and dreaming of his mate. But this wasn't his mate, it was the only other female that had ever held a piece of his heart.

A very soggy hanyou pup walked out of the woods just after sunset. His pointy ears perked as he heard his mother's voice getting nearer. She was mad…she was talking to his brother!

"If we do not find your brother within an hour I will be telling your father about this, young man," she hissed up at the teenage Sesshomaru that had taken the seven year old Inuyasha out for a hike and decided to run back in dog form. Leaving his younger brother to fend for himself and find his own way home.

Inuyasha hadn't been too surprised but after only two hours of the six hour walk back home, a storm had rolled in. The pounding rain had made it difficult to see his own hand in front of his face; following his brother's scent was no longer an option. And so even after the rain had slowed enough for him to start walking again, it had taken him another hour to find something the thought looked familiar.

Before either of them could say more their lantern light fell on the small hanyou boy.

His mother instantly had a blanket wrapped around and was lifting him into her small but strong arms.

"Are you ok, Inuyasha? I'm so proud of you for finding your way home on your own." She kissed his forehead, "Please promise me no more adventures with anyone without telling me first? You've been in the chilly night air, soaking wet. It'll be a wonder if you don't catch a cold…"

"I am warm now momma," he said, not quite understanding since 'colds' were not really something many demon young ever even encountered.

She looked down at him, her beautiful eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears, "I know you are my Little Prince. I just can't help but worry for you."

He shook his head, not liking what she was saying just because it was making her cry. His small hand wiped gently at her eyes, "Don't cry momma. Don't worry."

Her laugh was sweet music to his ears.

"Well I'm sorry Little Prince, but when you love someone you can't help but worry about them." She kissed the hand he had used to wipe away her tears. "Come on, both of you, let's get inside before your father notices we were gone…"

Inuyasha pressed his lips to the top of Kagome's head and left them there, breathing in her clean flowery scent through his nose as he let his mother's words dance around and around in his head. Love was something he had only felt before towards his mother…with Kagome the feeling seemed much different.

He had failed at staying away from Kagome but he could succeed for her by keeping his presence a secret; his mate could be the human priestess that she needed to be. He let his heavy lids fall shut even as he shifted his hips to bring his mate's curved backside back against him and allowed his mating mark to touch her skin just as hers touched the firm flesh of his upper chest.

Instantly his slightly softened length was again as hard as steel within her and they both were moaning in shock at the pleasure that burned through all of their flesh into to their very spirits.

His keen ears detected that she was still groaning his name around the cloth he had used to gag her. He liked that. Without separating their torsos, he rocked his hips against her as hard as he could muster. He needed to reach deeper.

She trembled against him and then went rigid; her sheath squeezing around him so tightly that he was helpless to object, and he was coming inside of her once again.

As he licked her neck in satisfaction the crazed haze he had been under lifted still further. "I'm so sorry," he was able to verbalize finally. "I wanted to leave you alone. I wanted to let you be happy…"

She moved to take the cloth from her mouth but he caught her hand and prevented any further progress.

"No, I can't listen to you hate me just yet," and he was sure she hated him. He had lied to her about so many things but most upsettingly, he had lied about her freedom. He could see now that his brother couldn't be counted upon to keep him restrained and he damn sure couldn't seem to stay away from her if he wasn't restrained… "Let me have this tonight or I won't be able to go."

She stopped fighting his hold and let him smooth her arm back down onto her pillow near her face. His thick length was still hard and still seated firmly within her; she gave him her permission the only way she could think of and pressed her butt more firmly against his groin.

"Fuck, Kagome…I can't…" he bit his lip and went silent.

Once, twice, tree times she rocked against him and then he needed no further encouragement. He moved his hold on her to her hips and matched her slow thrusts with his own slow grind upwards, rolling his hips to force his cock to swell upwards within her and nudge repeatedly over a previously over-looked area.

Now she would never forget it, she thought to herself as she pressed her face harder into her pillow with each pleasurable but agonizingly slow thrust. At this rate he would tease her until she died from the pleasure but never reached her peak! He shifted his positioning a bit and the next thrust caught her deeper, pulling from her a high pitched mewl of surprise and more pleasure.

"Tell me you have ached for me," he demanded as he suddenly started to pound into her with purpose. "Tell me you have needed this…tell me you have needed this. from. Me."

Each word seemed to sink deeper into her chest, a chest she could feel filling up with something that felt dangerously close to love, as he drove his cock deeper into her waiting body. Both of them tried to keep the involuntary sounds of their union as quiet as they could, but it was moments like these when they both forgot and simply reached for each other.

He slid a clawed hand down the front of her body and found the small bundle of nerves above her entrance. It only took his middle finger a couple of gentle rubs across the nub before she was sucking in her breath and clenching down around his length again, milking his seed from it so very sweetly.

Sleep and exhaustion finally came forward to take their toll.

Kagome removed the cloth from her mouth and couldn't help but bite her bottom lip softly as she felt the hanyou fall soundly asleep behind her.

She had ached for him.

She had needed exactly this, from no one but her mate.

Kagome's lids fell shut only moments after Inuyasha's had, their bodies still intertwined.

Inuyasha's nose twitched as a familiar musky earth smell teased his nostrils. Telling him something… Telling him what? His lids, heavy from running for days on a rush of adrenaline that was clearly abandoning him, refused to open for anything but an emergency. It was still an hour or so before dawn…

He tried to mentally solve what had awoken him.

He was in his mate's borrowed room but more importantly, he was in her bed, with her. And…there were moths?

Something light fluttered next to his ear a moment before perching delicately on the appendage. Inuyasha sat bolt upright, eyes instantly going wide as his sensitive ears were instantly tickling him past awaking.

Of course, the sight of a few dozen powder white moths that had somehow made their way into Kagome's room throughout the night was also a factor in his surprise. He sniffed softly at the moth that he had just disturbed and forced to hover for a moment before landing again, this time on his shoulder. They were just regular moths…but he sensed something demonic was the underlying cause of their presence.

When he saw that a handful of them had congregated on an unobtrusive bundle of cloth sitting up out of children's reach on a shelf he decided to investigate. He glanced back at his mate and gently smoothed the backs of his fingers across her silken cheek, then he was up and moving; reassured of her continued health and want for nothing.

He had just unwrapped the bundle from its last layer, revealing the red egg sac roughly the size of a large amorphous melon, when Kagome too was awoken by one of their tiny visitors.

She sat up sneezing, almost squashing the moth that had unwisely landed on her nose and almost gone up it.

"What?" she asked aloud, like he knew the answer.

"I suspect it's because you're carrying this," he offered when she glanced at him.

Her eyes widened when she saw what he held. The priestess was standing and reaching out for the precious bundle before she even realized that she had sprung into action.

Inuyasha easily gave her the sac, not fighting her instinct, and was rewarded when she remained still beside him once the sac was in her arms. With her arms full and her attention on what she held, he was free to snake his arms around her waist and pull her into the cradle of his body.

"Tell me why you're holding a demon insect's unhatched egg sac as if it were yours," he ordered softly into her ear from over her shoulder.

She squirmed and turned in his arms until she had the sac between them and could look up at him.

"Villagers killed the father and mother. For no reason Inuyasha. The mother," Kagome had started out calm but had quickly become upset. She finally had someone she could talk to about anything. Someone who might have actual answers and who cared for her…

He shushed her softly and wiped away the tears that had already escaped down her cheeks. "The mother?"

Kagome nodded as she continued to cry and hold the bundle gently but firmly against her, "The mother was so worried about them! She was trying so hard! And the villagers were angry over damage to only ten or so plants, nowhere near a crop's worth, and a missing boy. Who, I heard later that night, was home with his mother by the time the hunting party returned to town victorious in his honor." She looked into the serious golden eyes that were giving her their full attention and sobbed a little harder when she felt him wipe her cheeks once more.

"The mother and father were killed for no reason other than they had attracted attention to themselves! These babies haven't done anything wrong and when she gave me a vision, I literally felt her hope that even one should make it to adulthood this time!" She couldn't seem to control herself. "I couldn't leave them there Inuyasha. The villagers were already wanting to take pieces of the mother home…imagine what they would do with the eggs! They would do horrible things to innocent babies just because they are demons! I had to take them! When I realized the mother had cut open her own body just to hide the sac within her…I had to take them. They have to live."

Two strong hands came up to cup either side of her head, forcing her to still and look at her hanyou's face.

Inuyasha was the calmest she had ever seen him. "Breathe Kagome. If you want them to live, then they will."

She couldn't help it; she started to panic again, "But I don't know how to raise regular children, much less moth demon babies! And with hundreds of them to keep track of…they will each be so vulnerable." She felt so defeated already. "If their species was dying out already because they were so fragile then how are they going to survive even the first week without parents?"

Her mate gave her cheeks a gentle squeeze, "Shh, shhhh, shhhhh." He leaned forward and softly kissed her forehead. "The moth demons are not a hardy breed but then again none of their offspring have ever had a priestess and a dog demon backing them. Neither humans nor demons will dare harm anything you hold dear, I swear it."

The priestess stilled and searched Inuyasha's gaze for the answers to all of her unspoken questions. One thing at a time.

"You're staying in the human territory?" she asked and was surprised to find herself hoping he answered with an affirmative.

"I will go where ever you go," he responded before he could think to curb his honesty a bit. He grimaced, "I will stay out of the humans' sights. No one will know I am around unless you wish it."

She opened her mouth and abruptly shut it, fighting herself. "For sex?" she asked a moment later and then blushed like she was still the virgin that most humans probably still assumed her to be.

"For anything you need," he said simply.

Kagome glanced down and then back up, "For the babies?"

"For anything you need." He reaffirmed.

She chewed at her lip, "Why are you being this nice to me? Offering to do…anything? You're a demon Lord, not just a regular demon; you deserve more than to spend your life in the shadows of the human lands."

"I am a half breed that is unwanted by both my mother and father species. I have half of a throne that I can only keep if I leave my mate unprotected for weeks at a time. No one but you thinks I deserve anything," he said coldly. "If following in your shadows is what I have to do stay by your side then that is exactly what I will do."

She shook her head, "No more half breed talk. I don't care. This huge war that has blown up between humans and demons is just unnecessary and an excuse for bad people and demons to do bad things. I don't care about any of it."

He hadn't really been moving much but she felt him go utterly still.

"You don't hate that you were forced to mate with a demon?"

It hurt something in her to see that though he was brave enough to voice his question, though years of torment had made him unable to look her in the eye when he did it. No one deserved to feel that way just because they are different from those around them. Not even demons…not even this hanyou prince who her people talked about like he was the boogeyman but who had without hesitation accepted the burden of raising the moth demon young when his mate asked it.

"I didn't love the circumstances," she said slowly, drawing it out, "but I don't really mind the demon. He's actually very sweet and he is kind of handsome in an arrogant sort of way…"

He stared at her for a few moments in silence before smiling softly, "Says the wench that just brought home five hundred of another male demon's offspring that she wants to raise as her own. Like protecting the humans from all of us evil demons wasn't a demanding enough job. You just want the attention!"

She gasped in surprise and irritation at the gutsy hanyou but couldn't keep from smiling admonishingly up at his suddenly smug grin. "Shut up," she ordered grumpily and then stilled when he did exactly as he was told. She glanced towards the east and could see some faint rosey light starting to filter through the wooden slats over her window; dawn was coming up on them fast.

Kagome looked back at Inuyasha and wasn't surprised to note that the mesmerizing gold of his irises seemed to catch the morning light and sparkle it annoyingly back at her. "What now?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Where have you been traveling towards?"

"My home village…where my sister should still be…" Kagome answered, not entirely sure she ever wanted to see her sister again anyways. It made her stomach knot with fear and upset over the betrayal of her trust all over again.

"Then we go there," he said like it was the easiest decision in the world. "We will get there faster if you just let me carry you."

The villagers would no doubt notice her absence and probably gossip about how else she intended to travel, but it was no serious issue. "Okay, let me just gather my things and let the farmer and his wife know that I will be on my way…" she glanced around her at the lingering moths. "What about them?"

Inuyasha was quiet for a moment before answering, "Try simply telling them what you want them to do…while holding the eggs."

"You think that will work?" she asked, impressed and awed at the thought.

The hanyou shrugged, "It's worth a try."

After sending him a 'you're so damn helpful' glare, she closed her eyes as she cupped the egg sac in her hands. She could feel that it had grown in mass, just since the night before. Concentrating on the little moths around her, she spoke to them out loud as she pictured them in her head, "I don't know if you can understand this, but I need all of you to go. The egg sac is safe as long as it's hidden. When they hatch I will bring them to the woods for a visit but until then…please please stay far enough away from us that the other humans don't realize what I carry."

She sat there quietly for a minute like she was waiting on some sort of answer.

Then she snorted and opened her eyes to discover, to her surprise, that the moths were already seeking multiple exits from the room. They had understood her.

Inuyasha met her smile, tooth for sharp tooth, "See. You can do anything."

Kagome tilted her head as she regarded her mate; he was simply full of surprises. Quite the adorable, sweet guy once you quieted down and let him relax into your presence… she smiled at his look of confusion.

"What?" he asked softly, instantly becoming worried because he didn't understand what she was thinking.

The priestess rolled her eyes at him and turned to pack her things, "I'm allowed to smile if I feel like it!" Perhaps with this hanyou…she could do anything.

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