AN: I dont own anything. This is a dark story with romance thrown in. It is not a story for children. Read at your own risk. There is no rape. This is my first fanfiction. Let me know what you think.
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"If you force me to marry that youkai,I will never, ever let him touch me...."
She'd said and she'd meant it. And now she stood beside the demon lord Sesshomaru Tashio, powerless,hiding behind her veil, still as stone, with her pride and rock-hard determination to never ever submit to him.
He was not the youkai she was supposed to marry.
He was a monster, and her mother had sacrificed her to him. She couldn't look at him, or the crowded church, or at the minister without feeling like the whole thing was a nightmare.
She hated him. And she hated InuYasha Tashio, the hanyou she loved, who had stood by and let her mother give her to Sesshomaru. It was painful,unforgiveable, that he hadn't even fought for her. She would never understand why.
She felt as if she were all alone in that church, that there was no one there for her, and that the woman who had walked her down the aisle and handed her over to Sesshomaru was a complete stranger.
She heard the words of the service; she heard Sesshomaru's husky baritoned voice reply to the time-honored questions of love,honor, and duty. Her heart started pounding painfully.
Had she truly thought that he would say no, he wouldn't. Take her.
Oh, god, take her...
Or that InuYahsa would charge up the aisle at the last minute to save her? InuYasha was nothing more than a craven coward, brought to heel by the wealth and influence of his half brother Sesshomaru. And the determination of her mother, who so desired this marriage that she was willing to trample on anyone who got in her way.
"Kagome Higurashi, do you take Lord Sesshomaru Tashio...." She swayed slightly. She felt as if she were watching a play, and that someone else was responding to the minister's words. That someone said, "I do," and heard the minister pronounce them husband and wife; that someone turned as he presented them to the assembled guests.
Someone else ... who was she?
To his credit Sesshomaru didn't even try to kiss her; his expression was unreadable, forbidding. She couldn't imagine him ever touching her, even though the marriage contract between him and her mother specified that he had every right to have her and that she would submit.
Written in stone. Her life, his to do with as he pleased....
Dear Lord--
It was unimaginable.
She placed her icy hand in the crook of his elbow and allowed him to lead her out of the church and into the blazing sun of a sultry Louisiana morning.
The heat hit her like a wall,suffocating,thick, imprisoning. And they still had to get through the reception; no matter what the reality, all the amenities had to be observed. They waited on the bottom step until the youngest daughters of the surrounding parish families caome to the forefront to throw petals in their path as they led the way to the rear of the church.
Her mother and Sesshomaru-- they did everything to a nicety... everything to circumvent gossip and make it look as if the marriage was real.
She kept her gaze down as they paced slowly behind the children and the fluttering of petals, with the guests following in their wake.
...... InuYasha my love--- But it was a love not strong or powerful enough to save her from this........
Behind the church, the servants of Westwood had made a complete wedding banquet in the garden under the direction of the minister's wife.
I dont want this.... I don't--
People she'd known for all of her life were coming up to her, pleased for her, delighted for her, swelling with the summer-rich sense of the passion that was to come. Everyone loved a love story, but better than that, they adored an excellent dynastic match.
And of course that was part of Sesshomaru's thinking when he'd agreed to her mother's proposition. I won't forget that. I'm a commodity, with a value set like a sack of rice or a bale of cotton. I am worth his paying off mother's debt and accruing half a share of the Higurashi Shrine, and he gets a housekeeper, a manager, and an heir into the bargain.
What do I get?
Mauling by a youkai that I despise. Marriage and status--and the loss of a true love...
How can I ever find forgiveness? How could he use my mother like that?