A few months passed and now I'm living in Japan with Sesshomaru and our kids are enrolled in school. Everything was calm and going perfectly. Sesshomaru and I both continued our professions, business and writing respectively. He was always busy but managed to make enough time for his family.

I looked down at the test in my hands. Positive. Oh Kami. Staring, I still couldn't believe my eyes. How would Sesshomaru react? Tsuki? Touga? A grin crept up my face as the full weight sank in. I was pregnant again. I was going to have another child! I decided to tell Tsuki and Touga after I informed Sesshomaru.

"Sa-chan. Miss me?" a voice called later that evening.

"Sesshomaru. I have something to tell you, while the kids are helping with dinner."

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Oh, he made it so hard to not smile. Of course my watchful mate's mind would go straight to something negative. Such a pessimist. "Nothing's wrong, but how would feel about a new addition to the family?"

Confusion flitted across his face, making him look cute. Not that I'd ever call him that, the word just doesn't fit him. A second later, it dawned on him. "You're pregnant? I'm so happy!" he exclaimed pulling me into a hug.

"Me too. I can't wait! I need to tell Tsuki and Touga." It turned out I didn't have to. They both eavesdropped on us. They would be reprimanded later. But they were both excited, especially Touga. His enthusiasm was contagious enough to transfer to his sister

Soon after that...things started to go downhill. My marriage was fine, as were the kids. The only thing is...there were threatening letters. Typed letters, so they couldn't be traced. The first letter I received was taped to the door. I noticed it when I came back from grocery shopping. It looked like this:

Sayuri Taisho,

Congratulations on your marriage, pardon my lateness. You moved up a rung on the social ladder. Brings back such fond memories. no? May I be the first to say congratulations on creating another life? Too bad it'll be an abomination! I know what happened in the past. You should've stayed in the afterlife. Enjoy your happiness while you still can. As long as I'm alive, I won't let you have much joy.

The letter was unsigned. Dread dripped down my spine. Who was this? No one, aside from direct family, should know I was pregnant. I only just found out last week! The sender had to be a youkai. Only then could he or she live long enough to know that I died in the past. My next thought went to the twins. They should be safe, right? At least safer than me and the baby I was expecting. They were full youkai, unlike the hanyou I was now carrying. My hand rested on my flat stomach. No one would hurt my little one. I would not let them. If the sender was a youkai, I could always use my purification powers.

Before we went to bed I showed Sesshomaru the letter. His golden eyes scanned the paper with furrowed brows. As he went on, red seeped through masking the gold. A guttural growl escaped his mouth and he bared his fangs at the letter.

"Why did you wait so long to tell me?"

"There's no need to raise your voice. I didn't want to worry you at work and I didn't want the kids to hear."

Another growl. Softer. Gentler. "I apologize, Sayuri. I do not mean to raise my voice at you," he sighed plopping down on the bed, "I'm supposed to protect you, but I can't if I don't know who is trying to hurt you. Even then, I can only turn him over to the police. Not as satisfying."

"It's alright. I can fend for myself too. I have miko powers, don't forget that. Maybe we'll find out who the sender is. I just hope this is taken care of quickly."

"If I can't protect you, I'm a failure as your mate. Even if it wasn't tradition, I would still consider it a failure. It already happened once, I won't let history repeat itself."

"You could never be a failure to me. We'll get through this. We're both strong. Everything will be fine." I sat down next to him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

Sesshomaru smiled gently and slowly untangled himself from me, "go to bed without me. I'll be back in a little bit. I have some calls to make."

He placed a loving kiss on my brow as he left the room. I crawled under the covers and listened to his footsteps fade away to his office. With a sigh I laid back and stared at the ceiling. My mind wouldn't calm down. Thoughts flitted across my brain and collided with each other. I was still awake when Sesshomaru came back. He told me he informed Inuyasha about the current situation, and he also called his head of security, who used to be the general of Sesshomaru's army.

"Don't be surprised if Aoi drops by tomorrow or if he decides to bring someone with him,"

I yawned, "I won't."

"Sleep, Sayuri. Goodnight, koi."

"'Night, Sess-chan."

The next morning, as promised, Aoi came over and brought friends. One was Inuyasha, the other was Aoi's mate, Arisu. The all read the letter and decided on an outcome. Now whenever I try to go somewhere, I'm accompanied by someone if Sesshomaru can't be with me. I did manage, however, to convince them to just follow me instead of staying right next to me. If the culprit wasn't caught soon, I would go insane!

AN: So the antagonist raises his mysterious head. What will he do now when things escalate. But the big question remains, who is this mysterious person? He's being passive right now, but that'll slowly start to change.

Please review!

Guest

I love the way the twins tease Inuyasha... and he really does care about them and would probably shred anyone who hurts them himself... and nonchalantly mention it to his big brother later... And as for Sesshomaru rubbing off on the twins... he is their father- and no matter what you do, you can't fight genetics!

This story has a great pace, but maybe you should have the antagonist start causing real problems for our friends now... it'll be interesting to see who he is and how you use him and partcularly how our friends beat him!

Very true. If I find a good spot, I'm going to add some Inuyasha/twins family fluff! But there's also nature vs. nurture. Hm...maybe I'll slip in an extra chapter where one of them is bullied and then Uncle Inuyasha finds out and then...here comes Daddy to save the day! I'm totally doing it!

Well now the antagonist is starting to stir things up. Hopefully it'll pick up from here. Speaking of finding out who he is, you already know him. I think I've mentioned him before. Somewhere. ;)