Captive Inu

Chapter 31

Two months ago

"Sesshomaru-sama." Sesshomaru blinked at the sound of the whisper soft voice but didn't move. Sango looked down at him with sad, teary eyes. "I'mI'm sorry."

Kagome wasgone. He sat at her side, her body growing colder as the minutes ticked by. Her body was soaked in her own blood coming from the wound Ai had had to cut on her lower stomach. 'Why?' was all he could think. The damn gods were truly sick beings. After taking his pup and mate-to-be three hundred years ago, and then giving Kagome back to him, only to snatch her away again. Just why?! It wasn't fair. Nobody deserved to suffer that amount of pain. It was crippling.

His heart was clenched painfully in his chest and he reached up a clawed hand to rub it absentmindedly. Rin had thawed his frozen heart, but Kagome had given him all the love and hope and peace he'd lost so long ago. And guilt filled him as he thought over the way he'd treated her the first several weeks of finding her. He was cruel. Even knowing fully well who she was, though she didn't remember, he had felt excitement and relief over knowing she was alive. But he couldn't show her. Instead he'd held onto the age-old rage from so long ago. Anger that she didn't even deserve to receive. If only he could take it all back and start over

A single tear slid down his face. And then another. Though most of the servants were outside of the room, giving him space to grieve, he didn't care that they could see him crying. He didn't care that his reputation as the icy lord was now gone, making him look like any other weakling. None of that bothered him. Hell, it wasn't even worth it.

"Sesshomaru-sama," Sango said again, tentatively, as if afraid he would lash out at her. He wouldn't. There was no need. He was angry, hai, but not at any of them. And above that he washurt. Devastated.

He looked up at Sango. Her soft brown eyes were red rimmed, her sadness as great as his own. The woman was close to Kagome as well. The two had formed a bond of sorts the moment they met, he knew. Kagome had cherished this ningen onna as if she were a sibling. She held a small bundle of blankets in her arms. Sesshomaru blinked, fearing the worse. Had the gods taken his pup as well?

But Sango gave a gentle watery smile. "It's a girl," she whispered. "Wouldwould you like to hold her?"

Sesshomaru swallowed thickly, his breath catching in his throat. A girl. Kagome had given birth to a girl. As the female first born heir, Kagome's birth was the first in all of Japan's history. It was unnatural. And now her first born was a female as well. He didn't question it, however, simply held his arms out. Sango lightly placed the swaddled baby in his arms. The moment he held her to his chest, some of the pain eased away, just a bit. Pride filled him when amber eyes so much like his own blinked up at him. The baby had the same double magenta stripes on her cheeks as Sesshomaru, and a small tuft of black hair peeked at him from under the tiny cap on her head. In the center of her forehead, however, was the same color moon as Sesshomaru's, but at the opening of the crescent was a blue five-point start. It was a perfect combination of the North and the West. Living proof of the two lands becoming one.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes and nuzzled his pup. He wished with every bone in his body that Kagome would just wake up. To open her eyes so he can hold her and his pup and Rin altogether. His family.

Suddenly, a great ripple passed through his body, pulsating in its intensity. "Wha-"

He sucked in a sharp breath and glanced down at his hip. Tenseiga made its presence known, pulsing madly to be unsheathed. In his despair he'd forgotten all about the healing sword from his father, the weapon that could bring even the dead back to life, only once. He'd only used the sword once on Rin that he hadn't paid it any mind since. He carried it everywhere with him, but as a decoration more than anything. And just as it had with Rin, it throbbed in tune with his heart, as if the two were in sync. He rose to his feet. With his pup cradled in one arm, he unsheathed Tenseiga and held it above Kagome. It glowed a soft hue, and the ugly goblins of the underworld made their presence known as they hovered over Kagome, eager to drag her dying soul away.