He knew better. She belonged to the hanyou. He definitely knew better. She was human. He knew he knew better. She was a miko. Knowing it didn’t make a bit of difference.

Her association with his half-brother should have been enough. She stood by the half-breed’s side, even dared to stand between them at times. She was loyal to the hanyou to a fault and she would risk her own life without a single thought to save him.

She was just a human woman, nothing extraordinary. The most beautiful of demonesses had thrown themselves at his feet but not one of them could catch his eye the way she did.

He was on the same path as his father, the path that led to his early demise, and yet he couldn’t change his course. He didn’t even try.

He’d sworn to never make the same mistake his father had, but there he was, ready and waiting to do so.

It was despicable to covet something else of the hanyou’s as he did the sword, though lately he’d begun to believe that perhaps his father was right to leave it to Inuyasha. He had saved her life with it countless times. He used it to protect her, sometimes even from Sesshoumaru himself.

No, he shouldn’t want her. There were so many reasons it was a bad idea, but only one reason for it, the only reason that mattered.

He wanted her like he had no other in all his life, and for that reason alone she would be his.