
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/1173599.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Bleach
  Relationship:
      Kurosaki_Ichigo/Coyote_Starrk
  Character:
      Kurosaki_Ichigo, Coyote_Starrk, Grimmjow_Jaegerjaques, Kurosaki_Isshin,
      Urahara_Kisuke
  Additional Tags:
      Alpha/Beta, Soulmates, Kidnapping, Public_Humiliation, Torture, Sexual
      Torture, Sexual_Abuse, Knotting, Mpreg, beta_ichigo, Mental_Instability,
      Mental_rape, Rape, Uke_Ichigo, Seme_Starrk, Alternate_Universe_-_Canon
      Divergence
  Series:
      Part 3 of Bleach_Alpha/Beta_and_MPreg_Fics
  Collections:
      Bleach_Alpha/Beta_and/or_MPreg_fics
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-11-19 Updated: 2016-11-21 Chapters: 2/? Words: 11057
****** Lone Wolf No More ******
by phoenixreal
Summary
     Canon Divergent Post Fake Karakura Town Arc
     Ichigo has adjusted to having no power. Then, he simply stops. No one
     understands, and a human diagnosis that is hard to comprehend is
     given to his father. When he walks through a garganta, no one is sure
     what happened. In Hueco Mundo, a truly alone Primera Espada wishes
     for something to change. Then, he hears something he doesn't expect.
     A Human scream.
***** The Loneliness that Crushes *****
Chapter Notes
     Okay, so this is being completely rewritten. I just wasn't feeling
     the way it was before. I might use that material elsewhere in another
     story, but this feels right.
===============================================================================
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                 [Hueco Mundo]
The dream was as always something that made him wake up with an ache inside him
that was bone deep and nearly crushed him. He sat alone on an overlook and
watched the hollows below him mill about. There was a good twenty-meter space
around him where nothing came close to him. Somewhat further out, there were a
few hollows that had died trying to encroach on his small territory. The world
of Hueco Mundo had moved on since Aizen’s defeat. And Coyote Starrk was
lonelier than ever for he no longer had Lilynette to ease his pain.
Lilynette had died in the fight with the Shinigami, and he almost had. It was
only by sheer luck that he had managed to retreat through a garganta he opened.
The only reason he hadn’t been attacked by roaming hollows in Hueco Mundo had
been because of his sheer reiatsu that kept them at bay. Even injured, he
exuded enough energy to crush them. He’d managed to recover, his power
returning slowly, and including the power he had given Lilynette. He found he
still had his resurrection, but he missed Lillynette’s banter and
companionship.
That was the dream, of course. It was always the dream. Lillynette’s presence
would comfort him and they would talk, and everything felt less lonely. But she
was gone. He rubbed his hands over his face, fingers dancing along the mask
fragment. He looked down into the valley he sat above. He smelled the sweet
scent from a beta hollow that were near him. His instincts were crying out for
him to find a mate, but he knew better. He had never could find a mate that he
didn’t destroy by his mere presence. He’d sensed more than one vasto lorde
classed hollow nearby, and at least two packs of the hollows left over from
Aizen’s days, but even they were not near his sheer power. He sighed deeply and
wished that he would end his lonely existence one way or another.
Upon returning to Hueco Mundo, Starrk had found things in chaos. Most of the
Espada were dead, and those that weren’t, were trying to maintain some
semblance of control. The ruins of Las Noches had become nothing but a
dangerous place for any but the strongest among Hueco Mundo’s residents. Old
power left the place a magnet for the power hungry. There was a nest of a
particular hollow that even Starrk avoided inside the bowels of that place. It
was ancient, and undying, and even before he became an Arrancar, he knew their
scent. There had been many Arrancar set free onto the sands of Hueco Mundo that
had no purpose any longer except to use their strength to try and control some
part of the land. Starrk knew that Tier Harribel and her fraccion had managed
to get back as well, and had carved out a small part of a canyon for their use.
The last he had heard, Grimmjow had joined her in a partnership of a type.
He had been about to lay back against his rock when he heard a scream. It
wasn’t a hollow scream, though. It was…human?
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
                                [Karakura Town]
The first indication that something was off with Ichigo was that he stopped
talking, then slowly, he simply stopped altogether. It had been over two years
since he’d given up his power, and life, for the most part, and he had moved
on. At least, that’s what outside appearances said. That’s what everyone
thought. He had been doing well, attending school, becoming a doctor. He met
his friends with smiles and laughter, though, and those that knew him were well
aware of how fake those things were to the boy.
Then, Ichigo just stopped communicating. Orihime noticed first, when she would
talk to him he’d stare at her and refuse to speak. For a while, they just
thought he was going through a rough period again. He’d started the university
levels, and was doing as well as he always had in high school. Then, though, he
stopped going to school at all. He would often be found sitting and staring
into space in his room, unmoving for hours on end.
Isshin sat at Urahara’s not long after he stopped leaving the house for school.
“I don’t understand what’s happening to him,” he said with a sigh as he looked
at his old friend.
Urahara shook his head. “He hasn’t been by lately. I’m not sure what is going
on with him.”
“I’m worried, he doesn’t talk, and he barely leaves his room. And I don’t know
what to do about it,” Isshin sipped his tea as he looked around the room. “Can
you come see him?”
“I can try. Have you tried letting Karin or Yuzu talk to him?”
Isshin nodded. “He doesn’t even act like they’re in the same room with him. It
is disconcerting.”
“This is a human issue, right? There’s no reiatsu present still?” Urahara
asked, hoping that something wasn’t happening that they hadn’t anticipated.
Isshin shook his head. “None. I’ve checked every way I know how, and I’ve had
Rukia do the same. I just…I know what to do with dangers from hollows and Soul
Society, but this sort of thing…”
Urahara agreed and sometime later he knocked on Ichigo’s door. There was no
answer, so he went into the room, announcing himself as he entered.
Ichigo looked up from where he was sitting on his bed. He wasn’t doing anything
at all, just sitting there, seemingly staring into space. He tilted his head to
the side and frowned at Urahara.
“Kurosaki-kun, I wanted to check on you,” Urahara said as he leaned against the
doorframe. “I haven’t seen you come by the shoten, and I wanted to find out if
all was well with you.”
Ichigo was silent for a long time and then shrugged. “I’m fine,” he said
finally and flopped back on his bed. Urahara stood there for a long moment in
confusion. That was perhaps one of the oddest reactions he’d seen from Ichigo
in all his days knowing him.
“Are you sure? Your father is concerned with your lack of school attendance
when you had been doing so well…” Urahara said as he approached.
Ichigo shrugged and for a second, Urahara thought he saw Ichigo’s expression
change to one of fear but then it returned to the mask of indifference. “Just
fine,” he muttered and rolled over on the bed to face the wall.
Urahara reached out his senses and felt…nothing. He nodded and headed out of
the room.
Ichigo, though, was screaming, but no one could hear it because it was only in
his own head. It had been like this for months on end. He had no control of
himself at all. His body moved and did things but he had no idea why or how.
He’d been out walking after dark one night almost six months before, and he’d
felt like someone was watching him. He remembered something slamming into him
and then everything was black. The next he saw he was watching from his
eyes…but he was a passenger in his own body. He heard his voice now and then,
but never many words. He felt as though someone was trying to pull information
from his memories, and he tried to stop them. The process was painful, and he
would eventually give up and let whoever it was have his thoughts and memories.
Only the surface though, and he eventually figured out how to let go of
memories so whatever it was thought it had found them. He desperately tried to
keep his past as a Shinigami away from it. He had no idea why it was important,
but he felt like that would be a mistake.
He was frantic to get this torment to end, but he couldn’t even tell someone
that something was wrong. There was no response from whoever, or whatever, was
controlling his body. He just wanted to be in control again. That was all. He
wanted help, but he couldn’t figure out how to tell them he wanted it.
After Urahara left, his body stood and went into the bathroom. He stood in
front of the mirror and watched himself. He had been trying to force control
for the last month or two. He’d saved his strength for nearly two weeks now and
he wanted to see if he couldn’t either get their attention or end this. Either
was sufficient. At least if he died, he would get to Soul Society again. This
wasn’t how he wanted to do it, but anything to stop this. Anything. Finally, he
managed all his strength and forced one hand under his control. He only had
moments as he grabbed a pair of scissors from the medicine cabinet shelf and
flicked them open and quickly sliced open his opposite arm. It was a deep cut,
and blood began spurting everywhere. Then, his control was gone and he watched
as his hand went over the damage and for the first time, Ichigo sensed emotion
not his own.
It was confusion. Then it turned to anger, and then rage.
He felt his body become dizzy and he moved toward the door, knocking a jar to
the ground with a crash. He heard his father yelling as he grabbed the door and
then looked to see his father’s face. He looked at him and struggled against
the consciousness that was trying to push him back.
“Help…me…” Ichigo choked out as he fell forward into Isshin’s arms. Whatever
was controlling him weakened enough that he was able to speak, just for a
second. He hoped that his father realized that there was more going on than
what he could see.
He woke in the hospital; a psych ward, he realized as he felt his body sit up
on the bed. Of course, this was a human issue to his father. There was no way
his father could know anything else. He picked up his arm and looked at the
bandage. His fingers plucked the bandage off to find the rough cut had been
sutured with seven stitches. Then, Ichigo realized that whatever was
controlling his body was angry, truly angry, and he realized that he would
regret his cry for help. A horrible rage was building, and Ichigo was scared
because he couldn’t stop whatever this was.
He stood and moved to the two-way mirror and stared at his reflection and
Ichigo screamed as the entity began ripping through every memory in his mind.
This time, it felt like claws scraping down into the heart of him and tearing
at his soul. This wasn’t the gentle curious tugs at his memories around the
edges, this was cutting him open and laying everything bare. The pain was like
nothing he’d ever felt and there was no pause, no end. He screamed and flailed
but it was no good. He couldn’t get away from the pain searing through him as
each memory was touched, tampered with, and warped. He felt helpless, alone,
and couldn’t breathe. He just wanted to die, just die, as he saw everything
torn from his grasp, whatever this was delving into the deepest corners of his
being. His mother, his sisters, Rukia, Renji, Aizen, everything was flooding up
and drowning him.
Of course, outside, there was nothing. Two weeks passed and he was released
into his father’s care with a diagnosis of schizophrenia with catatonic
features, provisionally, as they waited for testing to come back on other
causes. Medications were prescribed and given. He didn’t speak, and went
through the motions to get out of the psychiatric facility.
In those two weeks, Ichigo’s torment was unending. The entity was enraged, and
each moment the body was awake, it tormented Ichigo’s soul and ripped at the
loose threads that began to fray. Self-doubt, anger, pity, self-loathing, it
all started unraveling. Ichigo began seeing this thing that had control of him
as some sort of twisted version of himself. While the body rested, he tried to
retain his very sanity. If he ever did get control of his own body again, it
would be a miracle if he was still functional at this rate.
Isshin sat at Urahara’s table again and wondered what he’d done wrong after
those two weeks. He had no idea the hell his son was enduring right before his
very eyes.
“Isshin, this may have nothing to do with the powers or with anything of our
worlds, you know. Sometimes, people his age develop these disorders,” Urahara
said with a sigh. “You know this.”
“It isn’t my son anymore,” Isshin said quietly. “I…I don’t know that person.”
They sat for a long time in silence until Isshin went home. He found that
Ichigo was standing outside staring into the distance. Nothing much had
changed, and now that the doctors had diagnosed him, he wished he’d seen it
sooner. He knew what catatonia looked like, but it was so hard to see in his
own child. He sighed and put his hand on Ichigo’s shoulder.
Ichigo turned and looked at him suddenly and smiled. “Ichigo loves you a great
deal. But it’s time for us to take him away,” he said in a strange tone Isshin
had never heard to Ichigo’s voice.
Isshin pulled his hand back and frowned. “What does that mean?”
Ichigo stepped forward, flicking his wrist and to Isshin’s shock a garganta
opened. Ichigo turned back. “He resisted much. Fascinating. Strong soul, our
soul. Consuming from the inside out is so much more satisfying. Especially once
we take him home and activate his power again. The soul of a Shinigami is a
rare delicacy for us indeed.”
Ichigo’s eyes glowed red for a moment, then he stepped into the garganta and it
snapped closed.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo screamed, pushing him away from the memories that he knew might mean
something…but it didn’t matter. He tried to hold on and the memory was ripped
from him. He’d tried so hard to hide this memory, mostly because it had
something to do with the nature of his hollow. He was afraid what the knowledge
would do for whatever had him. After he stepped through the garganta, though,
Ichigo couldn’t stop him from seeing it.
He was sweating again.  Eleven seconds.  He had to get more than eleven
seconds…  He didn’t have time as the mask shattered again.  He inwardly cursed
as Hiyori was pressing him again.  Harder now, he had to get this under control
or he would be of no use in the coming battles.  And if he didn’t, he was going
to get another flip-flop to the head.  He went tumbling again, and got to his
feet and set to go again…
“Oi, enough,” yelled Shinji.  “Come on, break for a while, you two.”
Hiyori agreed and sighed as they left the warehouse.  “I want to go check on
something with getabishi,” Ichigo said with a sigh.  “So, I’ll meet you back
here in an hour?”
“Got it,” the two Vizard said with a wave.
Ichigo flashed away, because there was something bugging him.  A lot.  Ever
since he managed to subdue the inner hollow, something had been niggling at the
back of his mind.  Something felt…wrong.  He entered the shoten and down to the
basement area where he sensed Urahara, Chad and Renji were. 
“Getabishi!” he called out and the man came over to him.
He smiled and snapped his fan open.  “Yare, yare, what can I do, Ichigo-san?”
“Can we talk about something…upstairs?” he asked, frowning.
For a second, he swore Urahara looked confused.  But he nodded and they headed
back upstairs and he offered him tea.  “So, what is it?”
Ichigo swallowed.  “Since…since I got him under control, I’ve been
feeling…weird.  Not just with the mask, but all the time…” he said slowly,
sipping the tea.
Urahara tipped his head to the side.  “How so?”
“Like…something’s missing.  Something huge is just…not there.  It…it isn’t like
I’ve lost anything, just something is not there that I desperately need and I
don’t know what it is…” he said thoughtfully.  “Something that has never been
there, but it was only once the hollow surfaced and I got some sort of control
that I realized it.”
Urahara looked thoughtful.  “It would be impossible…” he muttered finally.
“What?” Ichigo asked.
“Hollows are like animals, pure, base instincts.  Well one of those is the
consume, another is to procreate, and while they don’t do this like living
beings, I’ve seen more sentient hollows take mates for short periods or
lifetimes, which is often until one is devoured by another hollow.  But I’ve
never seen one of the Vizard have these compulsions.  Perhaps…perhaps your
hollow is stronger than the others…” he said thoughtfully.
Ichigo sat for a moment.  “Well, I’ll go back to the warehouse then, figure
this out later.  It isn’t causing any problems…I just didn’t know if it was
related to being a Vizard…and well it is kinda embarrassing to tell Shinji and
his bunch this kind of stuff.”
Urahara gave him a rare, genuine smile.  “Well, I am honored; now, get back,
Ichigo-san before Hiyori-san plants her flip flop where it is not desired…”
Ichigo smiled and left.  He always felt a bit better after talking to Urahara,
even if he was now a bit more worried about what was happening.
Ichigo heard his own voice chuckle as he walked through the sands of Hueco
Mundo. “So that’s it, is it?” he said to himself. “But we need to release that
sweet power so we might have our meal,” Ichigo muttered. Once again, everything
began to twist painfully and horribly as whatever this was began rifling in the
depths of Ichigo’s soul that were not meant to be felt by anyone save himself.
The pain was excruciating, and if it had been physical, Ichigo knew his human
body would have expired already. As it pushed further and further into Ichigo’s
soul, it seemed to be tearing at his very core. Finally, with a guttural
scream, it pulled Ichigo’s power free.
They hadn’t counted on how much power Ichigo carried. The body that the entity
had taken over was twisting and moving without it doing so. It let out a hollow
scream as a cascading white color flowed over Ichigo’s body.
What? The parasitic hollow asked as more than a Shinigami came to be in the
body he inhabited with intent to devour.
It had been accidental that the creature had found itself in the human world.
It had searched and latched onto the closest thing to a hollow signature it
could find, for the sweet reishi would empower them. They had found instead a
human Shinigami that had his power drained, and it was the first time they
would have the chance to devour the soul of a Shinigami. It would be a treat,
even if their ambient reishi wasn’t as strong as the hollows. They didn’t
expect a vasto lorde hollow to begin squeezing the very life from within the
very soul he was inhabiting. White hands with long black nails clutched a
white, wormlike creature that writhed and squirmed in those hands. The thing
screamed and twisted, but the black nailed white hands squeezed and squeezed.
“How dare you?” it hissed at him. “How dare you do this to my King?” the white
faced creature said with a flick of a forked tongue. “Do you know what you’ve
done? Do you have any idea? You’ve awakened a sleeping beast…and now you die…”
he growled and all the happened was there was an audible pop, and Ichigo’s body
slumped to the ground.
In the distance, there was a communal scream as the hive lost one of their
number. They wouldn’t let such a prize go this easily, though, as from the
writhing mass, a small worm that looked very much like the one Shiro had
destroyed headed away from the ruins of Las Noches. They would have that power
and continue to grow their colony until they could devour all of Hueco Mundo.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Shiro?” the black clad Zangetsu said as Shiro lay on the water logged
building. “You are awake.”
“Yeah, so are you. We…we’re in trouble…” he said as he looked at Zangetsu.
“What happened?” Zangetsu asked.
“That hollow…it fucked his head up major. But worse than that is what is about
to start.”
“What is that?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“I…I had to do more than I should have…he’s…he’s more hollow than he was…I’m so
sorry…” he said with a heavy sigh. “The thing, it was powerful. It had fed off
his latent power for months the hollow powers mostly…and it turned him more
like me and less like him…”
“It triggered the heat.”
“I didn’t know we were a beta…but I guess it makes sense, he’s too fucking
protective to be an alpha,” he muttered and sighed. “They’re coming. I can feel
them. They’re going to kill him, and I’m so weak I can’t do anything…”
“They won’t kill a valuable beta,” Zangetsu said as they both heard the
reverberating hollow calls outside them.
“If they’re Arrancar, maybe not. But if we’re found by a pack of adjunca…” he
said as he found he couldn’t even sit up. “Don’t let my king die,” he said and
looked at Zangetsu for a moment before his eyes closed.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo gasped as he came awake, lying in the sand, wearing a different version
of his shihakuso than he used to have. He sat up slowly and realized that it
was mostly the same, but the jacket was tight fitting and there were gloves
that covered his hands from the sleeves. He felt weird though. His head was
pounding and he was hearing and seeing things that he couldn’t be seeing or
hearing. He stood up slowly, nearly falling as he did so. Someone caught him
though. He gasped and looked up to see…an Arrancar?
“Well, well, what do we have here?” he said as Ichigo looked around him to see
he was surrounded. There had to be ten of them, all Arrancar by the feel, it
seemed. They were ones he’d never seen before but then it wasn’t like he’d seen
every Arrancar in Las Noches.
“Isn’t that the Shinigami that Aizen had a hard on for?” one of the others said
as he moved up and grabbed him by the face. He had a wide bone fragment over
the top of his head that looked like some sort of helmet.
Ichigo’s head was spinning madly. He could barely stand and he didn’t know why.
Everything was wrong. “How…how did I get here…” he whispered finally.
“Aw, the poor thing doesn’t know how he got here…” someone said and they all
laughed.
Why was he so weak? He had no idea but he wanted them to just let go of him. He
tried to move but something was wrong. Not only was his head a mess, but his
body was hot and flushed with feelings he didn’t understand. If he had seen
himself, he would have noticed the thick black markings that had started at the
black circle on his chest and expanded over his shoulders and around his ribs.
He couldn’t see the red streaks that had appeared down his cheeks that were
like the ones that were on his Vizard mask. He certainly hadn’t realized there
was a mask fragment around his neck that very nearly looked like a white collar
of bone.  
“What should we do with him? He smells sweet,” one of them said and Ichigo
couldn’t focus on them.
“He’s a beta, nice,” another voice. “Smells ripe…”
The one holding him snorted. “Yeah, let’s get him back to the camp. I’m sure we
can all get a turn with him before the night’s over and see if we can’t get a
kit outta him…”
“Kit?” Ichigo muttered and tried to pull away. “What…what’s happening…”
Ichigo felt himself being picked up into a pair of arms and now he could see
the one that had come up behind him. He was tall with what looked like tusks on
either side of his jaw. He was grinning at him. “What’s happening? You’re a
beta, that’s what. And after Aizen created massive numbers of us alpha
Arrancar, that’s something in high demand. Especially Arrancar betas.”
He took off in a sonido and soon enough Ichigo found himself dumped face down
into the sand near a large set of hastily put up tents of some sort. A couple
of lower adjuncas came toward him and Ichigo backed away from them. The first,
the tusked Arrancar, kicked them away and grabbed Ichigo by the hair, dragging
him back through the sand toward a tent. He gasped and kicked at the sand and
told him to stop, but it didn’t help much as he was thrown down again.
“I’m not an Arrancar at all!” he gasped as he tried to get his head to stop
spinning.
He tried to push up and at least attack this Arrancar, but he found that the
Arrancar was straddling his hips, forcing his clothes off him, and biting at
the back of his neck. For some reason, he couldn’t resist him. The second his
teeth started touching his neck he was weaker than he had been. He sobbed out
loud though, trying to put what was happening out of his head. Considering how
much torment he’d been in just in his own mind, it didn’t help, and he screamed
out loud when he slammed into him.
“Shut up, you are an Arrancar, beta bitch, you smell like one from miles away
whether you know it or not,” the Arrancar growled and grabbed Ichigo by the
back of his head and shoved his face into the sand. Unable to breathe, Ichigo’s
resistance slowly lessened and just before he blacked out, he pulled him up by
his hair. “You are this pack’s property, do you understand? And every one of us
is going to claim you before the night is over, do you understand? And then,
you’ll bear a kit to one of us, and then, it all starts again, understand?”
Ichigo could barely see, let alone answer. He was so dizzy that he didn’t know
where one of them began and ended, he just wanted to hide, to run and get away
from them. He couldn’t, though. He couldn’t even stand, let alone run. He
coughed and spit sand after another one had tried to suffocate him in the sand
when he cried out in pain. He had no idea how to get away. There were too many
of them. But, when one of them was about to pin him down again, he felt a
horribly heavy pulse of reiatsu.
The one over him gasped and pushed him to the ground and ran from the tent.
There was no chance that he could stand up and run from whatever it was that
just sent a relatively powerful Arrancar running. He gasped as he heard someone
move near him and he tried to push away from them. But…they felt
different…warm, even.
“No, stop, please…” he gasped as he felt someone grasp his face and turn it
toward the creature that had come into the tent.
He vaguely recognized the face of one of the Espada. “Oh, my, you poor thing,”
he whispered and brushed a hand over his head. “Come, let us get you cleaned
up,” he said and swept him up into his arms.
Ichigo couldn’t think but as they came out of the tent, he saw several of the
Arrancar lying dead outside it. He phased out for a long time, it seemed and
then screamed when he felt something warm and wet.
“Hush, now,” came the deep, strong voice of the Arrancar that was still holding
him. They were in some sort of warm spring. “Here, we need to clean you up,” he
said and Ichigo clung to him desperately as he stepped down into the water with
him. “There, now,” he said as he sat on a rock and pulled Ichigo to sit on his
lap. He panted and looked up at him.
“What…who…” he whispered and looked at him.
“Coyote Starrk. I was the primera Espada. Now I am truly alone,” he said and
used his hands to cup water and drip it over Ichigo’s face.
Ichigo was hot, though, but unlike the weird feeling before, this was
incredibly uncomfortable and he just wanted to cool off. “Hot…why am I hot?” he
asked as he let Starrk lay him back into the water.
“Ah, you are in a heat, what happens with beta hollows. Somehow, you have been
altered to suit Hueco Mundo it seems,” he said as Ichigo started to squirm on
his lap. “You need to find your mate,” Starrk said. “Then it will stop.”
“But they…they…”
“They were not your mate,” Starrk said with a smile as he spun him around to
straddle his lap in the warm water. “I find it quite surprising myself to find
my mate after so long,” he said as he leaned forward and began to bite gently
at Ichigo’s neck.
Ichigo’s body nearly wilted in his arms. And he wanted to feel him, every part
of him. “Ha…please…I…don’t understand…”
“It is fine, my love,” Starrk said as he shifted and Ichigo nearly yelped as he
felt the primera slide his long, thick cock inside him in one smooth move. “I
will make you feel better, for now and forever,” he said as he pulled Ichigo
close to his chest and began slowly thrusting up into his body.
Ichigo arched backward and this time it felt right, like he was supposed to
have his body filled like this, with his mate. He gasped as he felt like he was
about to come apart from the incredible pleasure coursing through him. Moments
later he screamed out as he came and at the same moment Starrk bit down into
his neck. Reiatsu flashed around them and Ichigo felt the world blank out
again, but this time, it wasn’t as bad. However, in unconsciousness, his
nightmares of the hollow that brought him here began devouring him.
***** The Actions of Animals *****
Chapter Notes
     Updates are going to be super slow over the next few weeks. I have to
     complete On the Training of Doctors by year end to hand over to be
     copy edited. I also have kids, and holidays. I'll update fics when I
     can, but please, understand that I have a lot going on right now,
     along with osteoarthritis in my right wrist and a diagnosis of
     fibromyalgia.
                                  Chapter Two
                            The Actions of Animals
 
Waking up was difficult for Ichigo, and he was not sure that what happened the
day before was real or in his head. But when his body was hit with an
incredibly sharp pain as he tried to move, he came to the horrible conclusion
that it was very real. He couldn’t think. Between the horror of being
controlled for such a long time, every corner of his mind rifled through, and
the disgust at being used so horribly by those Arrancar… His first reaction was
to get to his hands and knees and vomit painfully into the sand. He felt hands
on his shoulders and he screamed, scrambling back away from whoever it was. He
turned eyes up on the wavering figure of an Arrancar he semi-recognized.
“Who…who are you?” he gasped, feeling a very strange desire to be near him.
“You do not remember what happened when I took you away from that pack?” he
said and knelt near him.
“You…you did…you…why would you? Why would you do that to me? You…you knew what
they did!” he gasped, horror dawning on him that the reason he wanted to be
near him. He reached up and touched the fresh bite on his neck below what felt
like a collar. He gasped and started pulling at it, whatever it was.
Starrk moved quickly, pulling his hands away from the bone fragment. “No, no,
do not pull that, you’ll hurt yourself so badly, my love.”
“What is this?” he asked and looked at him with wide eyes.
“You are an Arrancar, it is your fragment, like mine,” he said and pointed to
the jaw bone around his neck. “You cannot remove it without harming yourself.”
“I’m…I’m an Arrancar?” he gasped. “Why? How? I’m not…I’m a human!” he gasped as
he stared at him.
Starrk looked at him with a confused expression. “I…you are the Shinigami that
came with the others to Las Noches when we were trying to get the Oaken,” he
said finally. “How are you an Arrancar?”
“I don’t know!” Ichigo screamed, yanking his hands out of Starrk’s.
“Hush, you will be safe here. You are my mate now,” he said with a nod.
“What does that even mean? You…how…” he said as he stumbled to his feet and
looked around them.
They were on a high place in the sands that had a sheer cliff behind them. It
had a hollowed cave which is where they had been before Ichigo had crawled
outside of it. There was nothing as far as he could see. The eternal night
pressed into him harshly.
“Come back,” Starrk said, and for some reason Ichigo couldn’t disobey him. He
turned and stared at him.
“What…what is that…” he said as he moved toward the taller Arrancar.
“You are my beta. You cannot disobey me,” Starrk said as he stepped toward him.
“I…no. I’m not anyone’s ‘beta’ or anything, whatever the fuck that means!” he
shouted but found his body submitting to him as Starrk’s hands ran down the
outside of his arms.
“What is your name, mi amor?” he asked then, the same commanding tone to his
voice. “I remember it vaguely, but it has been a long time.”
Ichigo swallowed and tried to still his tongue. “Ichigo Kurosaki…” he said
finally as he let a loud sob wrench from his chest.
Starrk frowned deeply. “Ichigo, what do you weep for? I will not harm you. You
are mine to protect,” Starrk said, reaching out and thumbing the tears off his
cheeks. “It is the way of things. I have taken you from those that would hurt
you, to make you my love. I am a wolf Arrancar; I mate once in my lifetime. I
have chosen you.”
“You chose me? So I don’t get a chance to say what I want? I can’t say no? You
can just…just…just take from me whatever you want like that? You control…me…I
can’t…I can’t…” he gasped as he felt the world slide away and darkness
descended on him once again.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“What?” Renji said as he looked at Urahara. “When did all this happen? And why
didn’t you tell us?” he asked, looking between Urahara and Isshin. Rukia wore a
similar expression beside him.
“You told me to check for any foreign reiatsu around your house and the school
where Ichigo was attending, you didn’t tell me that there was something so
wrong with him!” Rukia exclaimed and glared at Isshin.
Isshin sighed. “I didn’t think of anything like this happening,” he said and
looked away from them.
“After…after what happened to Kaien? You didn’t think a sudden change in his
behavior was suspect?” she asked, truly horrified by the idea that it would
have been ignored.
Urahara shook his head. “I thought…I thought I’d checked for every possible
problem. I checked for every type of reiatsu I could think of. Whatever this
thing was, it exuded no power of its own. It only used Ichigo’s power, so we
could not detect it.”
“So he’s in Hueco Mundo?” she asked.
“Yes, but I have no idea…” Isshin started.
“It doesn’t matter, we’re going after him,” she said and turned on her heels
and left with Renji close behind her. She paused. “We should see if Uryū, Chad,
and Orihime are coming,” she said as she looked at him.
“Yeah, let’s do that.” Renji nodded as they took off together.
A few hours later, all five stood in front of a portal that lead to Hueco Mundo
again. Urahara had nothing to say as they slipped into the space in between,
not sure what they were going to find on the other side.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Starrk held his mate to his chest and wondered what had just happened. He
should have been happy to have found a mate. Why was he not pleased with this?
He’d been in a bad position with a large pack, and now he was only with him. He
was very confused as he clutched him and ran his hand over his head. He was not
sure what to do if he was unhappy. It was his job to care for him, to make sure
he was happy and loved…but what did he mean by the words he’d said?
His head popped up as he sensed several heavy reiatsu signatures coming toward
him quickly. He thought that they felt like Shinigami and something that felt
vaguely hollow. He supposed he could get up and try to meet whatever it was.
However, he honestly was far too comfortable where he was. He’d sat against the
wall that was behind him and pulled his mate into his lap, tucking him in close
to him, cradling his head.
He looked up with a yawn as two Shinigami and three others appeared at the
ledge. He blinked and smiled lazily at them.
“Why do you come to Hueco Mundo?” he asked them.
They stood and stared at the sight before them. The Arrancar was sitting, legs
spread wide with Ichigo positioned with his knees bent over one side and
cradling his arm around Ichigo’s back on the other. He wore the tattered
remains of the white uniforms that Aizen had used. Ichigo, though, was wearing
a shihakuso again, but his body was marked with red lines down his cheeks, and
black over his body, and there was a white collar around his neck. He was
completely unconscious by the look.
“What…what did you do to him?” Renji asked, his grip tightening on his
Zanpakutō.
Starrk looked between the red-haired Shinigami and the others. “What did I do?
I rescued him from a pack of alphas that found him.”
“What? A pack of what?” Rukia asked.
Orihime moved forward then and knelt to throw her shield over Ichigo. She
frowned and looked back at the others. “He’s…he’s an Arrancar,” she whispered.
“What?” Uryū said as he glanced at the others. “How’s that even possible? He
wasn’t even a Shinigami anymore!”
Starrk looked at them. “How did he come to be in Hueco Mundo?”
The group looked between each other. “Something, some sort of parasitic hollow,
it took control of him for a long time, and no one realized it until it opened
a garganta and brought him here.”
Starrk frowned deeply for a second. “What did it do while it had control of
him?”
“He stopped. He didn’t talk, he didn’t do anything…” Chad said with a tilt of
his head toward him.
“He stopped…” Starrk repeated. “Oh, my poor love,” he said and kissed the top
of his head. “I am so sorry for that, no wonder you were so very scared of me
when you woke up…you did not even know why you were here…”
Rukia looked at him. “What…what happened?”
Starrk looked at him. “I heard and sensed a powerful beta’s cries for aid.
Generally I do not attempt to answer such calls, as most betas have been simply
destroyed by my mere presence. I found him being abused by a ruthless pack of
alphas. There were several that that died when I entered the area, but those
that didn’t, they ran from the area. I took him to clean him after their
mistreatment, as they did not treat him as they should have,” Starrk said,
running his hands through his hair again. “I answered his need. I thought…he
would have been happy…but he was upset when he awoke a while ago,” he said,
looking at him with very confounded eyes.
“What do you mean, answered his need?” Renji asked.
Starrk looked up. “As a powerful heating beta, he needed to be claimed by a
worthy mate, those that had captured him were not near his power. It was only
his weakened state from what had occurred in his world, and their numbers, that
they were able to capture him. I wish I would have found him sooner, but his
cries for help were what summoned me. I did not think it sounded right, like a
human, not like a hollow, so I went to find out what had happened.”
“You seem to know something about what happened to him with the parasite
hollow,” Uryū said, glancing at the others. Honestly, he didn’t want to think
about what exactly this Arrancar meant when he said these things about the
group of hollows.
Starrk nodded. “Yes, there is an old hollow, well, they are not one hollow, but
more like a group of them. They are avoided by all in Hueco Mundo. They feed on
hollow reishi. They assume control of a hollow and return to their nest, so
that the whole could feed on it. The most attractive hollows are vasto lorde or
Arrancar, of course. It is well known to avoid their area.”
Uryū looked at Rukia. “So one of those things got to him. And it fed on his
power until it had enough to open a garganta. It took over six months for it to
draw that much from him since it was drained by the final Mungetsu. When it got
enough, it brought him here, but then what happened? Obviously it failed in
returning to the hive…”
Rukia looked thoughtful. “Shiro.”
Renji looked at her and nodded. “He was a Vizard, he’s hollowified, so that’s
probably why it attached to him, his energy is more hollow than the rest of us.
But him even more so, with the power that thing has.”
Starrk nodded. “So he was a Shinigami with the power of a hollow like some of
those in Karakura Town,” he said as he fondly stroked a hand over his head.
“The Hive found him in his world, an easy target since he was currently
powerless, oh, pobrecito,” he said. “I do not know what they do to their
victims, they do not survive. But it would have wanted access to as much reishi
and power as it could get to.”
Chad spoke up finally. “If it infected him, took over his body, perhaps it
tried to get his power to return so it could feed on it.”
“Returning to Hueco Mundo might have jump started his power again,” Uryū said.
“Made it easier…and if it tried to do that, and the hollow inside him
resisted…”
“Shiro might have used all his power to save him,” Rukia concluded. “He turned
him into an Arrancar, probably not purposefully, but he had to make him more
hollow to save him…”
“What do we do now?” Renji asked.
Starrk looked between them. “I will care for him. You have no need to remain.
He is mine to protect.”
Renji reacted before the others and swung Zabimaru toward the seated Arrancar’s
head. “Like hell he’s staying here!”
Starrk yawned and lazily caught the end of the expanding sword easily in his
hand. “You cannot separate him from me, he will die,” he said as he let go of
the blade and blinked sleepily at him.
Renji glanced at Rukia because they’d both seen the one on the back of his hand
when he caught Zabimaru’s blade. “You…you were the Primera. You died in
Karakura Town,” Rukia said, recalling Ukitake’s report on him and his fraccion.
“You fought Kyrouku-taichou. He killed you.”
Starrk stretched and shook his head. “Very nearly. Lilynette did perish, but I
managed to escape. My sheer reiatsu kept the other hollows at bay while I
healed. Her power returned to me when she was destroyed, though. I was so very
lonely for a long time again,” he said with a deep sigh as he clutched Ichigo’s
body to him tightly. “Until I found mi amor.”
Rukia and Renji exchanged a glance. “You…you can’t keep him here. He has a
family in the World of the Living. His father, and his sisters. They’re already
worried over him. He needs to return.”
Starrk looked up at her. “Oh, I suppose that may be why he might have been
upset by awakening here…” He shifted, standing up easily from his seated
position and nodded to them. “Yes, we should go to his world. There is nothing
here for us save emptiness. If it will make mi amor happy, I will take him
there.”
Renji stared at him. “What will make him happy is to no longer be forced to be
with you.”
Starrk’s face returned to confusion. “I do not understand. He should be pleased
not to be forced under the rule of a pack, and to have a single alpha to
counter his power. I believed that it would be for the best.”
Renji looked at Uryū for help explaining. He shook his head. “Look, we can deal
with this at Urahara’s, and let Kurosaki-san talk to him. I…I think it would be
better to get them out of Hueco Mundo, especially if this Hive hollow is here.
It has gotten him once already, honestly, I’d like to get Ichigo away from it.”
Rukia nodded. “Yes, come, um, what is your name?” she asked Starrk.
“Coyote Starrk,” he said with a nod. “Here, we are going to Karakura Town,
yes?” he asked.
Renji nodded. “Um, yeah, there’s…”
“I still recall the location,” he said as he flicked open the garganta with a
yawn. “Come, we will see how to help mi amor.”
The group went through behind Starrk, leery still of his attitude, as well as
the fact he had so easily avoided any harm by Renji’s sword. He also had
refused to let go of Ichigo’s body, which made this their only choice. None of
them noticed that there was a small path following them in the distance just
before the garganta closed.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
The inner world was already flooding. Zangetsu sighed, standing on the end of
the flagpole as he watched Ichigo completely come apart. Shiro was doing his
best, but it was harder than even the hollow had anticipated. Zangetsu knew he
would end up having to intervene before Ichigo was able to settle himself.
“Stop!” Shiro yelled as he zipped after him again. “You can’t just go running
off cuz yer pissed off at me! I did what I had to do!”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Ichigo yelled as he tried to dodge the pursuing
white version of himself. “I don’t want to know what your reason is! You…you
turned me into an Arrancar! How could you do this to me?” he yelled, dodging
away as Shiro tried to tackle him.
“I know yer mad, but dammit, you have to listen to me!” he growled as he nearly
pinned Ichigo this time. “Fuck! Zangetsu, you old fucking bastard, help me!”
Zangetsu sighed, moving once and standing with his arms wrapped around Ichigo’s
back, pinning his arms down. Shiro appeared in front of them. “Thanks, took you
long enough.”
Zangetsu held Ichigo easily. “Speak if you wish me to hold him for you.”
“Let me go, dammit, ojiisan!” Ichigo yelled. “Just let me go…I’m…I’m free in
here at least…”
Shiro closed his eyes and then stepped forward and grabbed Ichigo’s face.
“Look, it was this or we were dead. Do you understand this?”
Ichigo looked at him, and it broke Shiro’s heart that he was crying. “No, I
don’t…” he gasped finally.
Shiro leaned forward and touched his forehead to Ichigo’s. “Listen, that thing,
it was controlling us. It was taking us to Hueco Mundo to the rest of them. It
wasn’t one hollow, it was a drone that belonged to a hollow called the Hive.
It’s been there forever, and it will live on after all else is gone. It…it
wanted me, the hollow part of you, so it…it reached me and tried to wrench me
free. If it had done it, I would have become the one in control, and the form
you hate would have emerged. But under this thing’s control. So I had to…to
bring the rest of your power with me. I had to grab your Shinigami core, and
the rest, and pull it with me. The pain you felt, it was very real for both of
us.” Shiro panted, with his forehead still resting against Ichigo’s. “But…the
bridge between hollow and Shinigami is Arrancar. And I didn’t know it would
happen, I just thought…it would be like before, the Vizard powers. But it
wasn’t, because it had hold of me. So I became stronger than before, and it
transformed you into this. I’m sorry. You…you have control, though…of the form,
the vasto lorde form that I took, but it is your resurrecion. You need only
call on me, and I’ll give it to you.”
“But…my…am I still a Shinigami?” Ichigo asked.
“No,” Shiro said with a sigh. “I’m…I’m sorry. This is what you are now. I can’t
change you back. You are more Shinigami than any other Arrancar, though. You
haven’t got a hollow hole, just the mark in your chest where it should be. You
can still use your Bankai if you call Tensa Zangetsu, but if you call to me and
say ‘Rise’ before my name, you’ll bring the resurrection.”
“I won’t. I’ll never,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll never do that. I’m not
an Arrancar!”
Shiro put his hands on either side of Ichigo’s face and lifted his face up. He
leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. “I’m sorry. But you will call it.
And sooner than you’d like, but it will be your power, our power, it is one
now. I am forever your horse, King. That won’t change now.”
“And…and this Arrancar Starrk?” he said, eyes infinitely hurt.
“I’m sorry, I was so weak, I couldn’t suppress it anymore. I’ve always feared
that we were a beta, it was something I have pushed away, kept down for as long
as I’ve been with you. I didn’t want to know for sure, though I believe I
always knew. I…when we transformed, it let loose a flood of hollow instincts
and I couldn’t stop it. It took everything I had to just keep us from
succumbing to that thing’s powers. I crushed it, but the Hive knows what I did,
and it knows we exist. I guess, part of it is that I wanted us to be protected,
and I couldn’t do it…to call forth an alpha to us would protect us.”
Ichigo looked at him. “He…he thinks I should be happy with him.”
“You should, if you were a regular Arrancar,” Shiro said sadly. He sat down on
the building that was covered in about an inch of water already.
Zangetsu let go of Ichigo and stepped back. Ichigo sat down beside Shiro. “I
don’t understand.”
Shiro shook his head. “Hollows have alphas and betas. Alphas are dominant,
betas are submissive. Normally. Betas bear the young. Gender isn’t a thing
here, you know. And the young, they’re not young in the sense of humans or
Shinigami. It…the alpha answers the animal drives to procreate, in a futile
attempt to fill the emptiness inside us. The alpha passes a soul, one of our
many that comprise us, into the beta. The beta carries it, feeding it with its
own reiatsu, until it becomes strong enough to exist independently, and it
becomes a separate hollow, and the cycle continues. The alpha is supposed to
protect the beta during the gestation time while the beta’s energy is diverted
to the young.”
“I don’t want that.”
Shiro looked at him. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t stop it. It has already begun.
He’s claimed you. You’re his mate, and he’ll take the next step soon, because
if he doesn’t, we’ll go insane from the need to complete the cycle. Once…once
the cycle is complete, I might…maybe…be able to do something, but right now,
every bit of my energy has been pulled into the cycle of heating, claiming,
knotting, and then birthing. Once it is done, if I can do something before the
next one begins, I might be able to quell the urges.”
“Knotting?” Ichigo said.
Shiro smirked. “Um, you’ll find out soon enough,” he muttered. “You should
enjoy it…a lot…” he said as he grinned at Ichigo.
“Oh, I’m gonna kill you, you hollow bastard,” he muttered and put his face in
his hands.
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” Shiro said. “Look, I can’t stop this now, but I’m
going to try to stop it when this cycle finishes, okay? To do so now…I don’t
know if it will kill us. I just know that the hollow instincts are screaming at
me not to interfere with the cycle.”
Ichigo looked at him. “I’m not going to just fucking lie down for him.”
“You can’t deny him,” Shiro said with a sad smile. “I know you don’t like being
told what to do…”
“I will tear his face off if he…he…” Ichigo’s face paled. “I’m not doing that.”
“You will, no matter what you think,” Shiro said. “All he has to do is command
you, and that’s it. You’ll do what he says. The reason is to protect the beta.
The alpha takes control of the beta from the claiming until the birthing is
done. Otherwise, the young would be in danger if the beta decided to run off
from their alpha in their weakened state.”
Ichigo shook his head. “I’m not able to handle this, after…after what…” he
closed his eyes. “That thing…what it did in my head…”
“I know. Tell him. Tell our alpha. Tell him the pain you’re in, tell him why,
he will do anything to protect you, and if he’s a good alpha, he’ll do anything
to please you as well.”
“Even leaving me alone?” Ichigo whispered.
“Well, as much as he can, the knotting has to happen. And it can’t be much
longer until it does happen.”
Ichigo groaned, falling backward onto the building then feeling a strange
sensation, almost like he was being pulled from his inner world. “What is
that…?”
“He’s commanding you to wake up. You need to go. I’ll be here, I promise,
Ichigo,” Shiro said as the world faded out.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Starrk stepped out of the garganta near a building with a blond man standing in
front of it. He recognized him as one of those that had been in Karakura Town
when he had been there before. He did not recall his name. Rukia rushed forward
and got between him and Urahara who had already drawn Benehime.
“Wait, Urahara…we need to go downstairs, now,” she said with a nod back toward
where Ichigo was clutched in Starrk’s arms still.
Urahara nodded and led them downstairs into the basement area. Starrk simply
used his sonido to skip even taking the ladder down and waited for the others.
Urahara moved up and tilted Ichigo’s head to the side.
“He…he’s an Arrancar,” he said quietly and looked back to the others. “What
happened?”
“We’re not sure what caused that, but we found him with…” Renji started.
“Primera Espada. Starrk, I believe,” Urahara said.
“Yes, might I have a place to allow him to rest comfortably? While I do not
mind holding him, it might be best for him to lay down completely for a bit,”
Starrk said seriously as he looked between them.
Urahara nodded, coming back with one of his inventions, a tent that set up with
the press of a button. He let it come up and then handed a blanket over to
Starrk. He nodded and took both the blanket and Ichigo into the tent. He
returned a moment later to stand outside. “He is still sleeping, perhaps things
have been more taxing than I have anticipated to him.”
“What is happening?” Urahara asked as he glanced at the others. “I called
Isshin already to come, but why are you with Ichigo?”
Starrk glanced at the others. “I told them; I rescued him from an alpha pack
that found him after the Hive brought him to Hueco Mundo,” he said as he
crossed his arms over his chest.
Urahara looked up to Isshin come down into the basement. “Isshin,” Urahara
said. “I do not know if you recall Aizen’s Primera, Coyote Starrk.”
“I do,” he said with a narrowed glance at the Arrancar. “Why are you here with
my son?”
“Your son, I see,” Starrk said with a nod. “Then I give you more consideration
than I might allow others in regards to him.”
Isshin glanced at the others standing to the side. “What does that mean?” he
said as he looked back to Starrk.
“I have claimed him; he is mine to protect from whatever attempts to harm him.
It is my duty and position as his alpha,” Starrk said and yawned. “I tire, I
should rest with him.”
“Wait, what do you mean he is yours?” Isshin said. “And you claimed him?”
Starrk tilted his head to the side. “He is a beta Arrancar, of course I claimed
him. The pack that had captured him was well below his power. Even together,
their power could not overcome his reiatsu. That is why they could not claim
him, but I am far more powerful than most Arrancar.”
“I don’t understand,” Isshin said as he looked back to Urahara.
Urahara shook his head. “I’m not sure at all, but I think to get rid of the
parasitic hollow, he underwent a transformation. He has a mask fragment, and
his body is marked, but he has no hollow hole, just a mark in the center of his
chest.”
“I need to see to my son,” Isshin said and stepped forward.
When Isshin stepped closer, the pulse of reiatsu nearly staggered everyone
except Isshin and Urahara. “He is to rest; when it is time, I will waken him
from it.”
Isshin looked at Urahara. “If you do not let me see to my son, I will make sure
you are cut down where you stand.”
“If you do that, your son will die. He has not completed the cycle, and to
interrupt it by destroying his mate would destroy him,” Starrk said, heaving a
yawn and stretching his arms over his head for a second. “I have only claimed
him; the rest has not yet occurred. He was not strong enough to finish when I
claimed him. The mark will fade if I do not complete the knotting, and if it
does, he will draw hollows to him like a magnet.”
Isshin looked back at Urahara. “Is this true?”
Urahara shook his head. “I don’t know yet, I…I’ll have to test these things. I
can’t…even understand how this happened. We need to talk to Ichigo, though. We
have no idea what this parasitic hollow did to him.”
“Hive,” Uryū said as he looked at Urahara. “Starrk knows of it. It is a hive
minded hollow grouping. It takes over strong hollows and returns to the hive so
they can devour the reishi together.”
Starrk nodded. “I will waken him if you wish. He was not in a very good mood
when he woke up earlier, however.”
“I wonder why,” Renji muttered under his breath.
Starrk ignored it and went into the small tent and knelt beside him. “Ah, mi
amor, come, wake up for me,” he commanded, sending the instruction through
their binding.
After a few minutes Ichigo’s eyes fluttered and he looked up into Starrk’s
face. Starrk smiled at him. “Ah, mi amor, please, now that you are awake
again…”
Starrk didn’t expect his beta to be so very unruly, of course. Ichigo’s face
twisted and he punched up into Starrk’s face hard and scrambled out of the
tent, falling to his knees when he got a few feet away panting at the lancing
pain in his head. He looked up to see his father was kneeling in front of him.
“Ah…Pop,” he gasped. “Hi…” he said as he sat back on his heels for a second.
His head snapped around when Starrk stepped out, wiping his bloodied mouth.
“You!” he yelled and stood and turned toward him. “You! Get away from me!” he
screamed and tried to take off again.
“Stop,” Starrk said and Ichigo stopped and fell to his knees as Starrk walked
to him and knelt down in front of him. “Why do you still believe I will harm
you?” he asked simply.
Ichigo stared at him. “Why wouldn’t I, you bastard! You did the same fucking
thing! You didn’t give me a choice either!”
“I have never encountered a beta that does not submit to their alpha before,”
Starrk said, truly confused.
“I am not going to submit to anyone,” Ichigo growled. “Least of all you!”
Starrk looked over Ichigo’s shoulder where the others were standing, seemingly
unsurprised by his actions. He reached up and scratched the area under his
mask. “But…you are bound to me now. You have no choice in whether you submit or
not. I can command you; you have seen this. Why do you resist me still?” he
asked, slightly hurt by this fact.
Ichigo stared at him for a moment open mouthed. “You…how can you…why? Why? You
just…just took me off and do this and I didn’t even know what the hell you were
doing!”
“I saved you from those other alphas that would have killed you before they
were able to claim you,” Starrk said and was still very confused by the whole
situation. He had never heard of anything like this. “You should not be
so…strong willed or belligerent any longer...”
“You stupid Arrancar!” he screamed at him and punched him again, knocking
Starrk back slightly. He blinked at him owlishly for a moment. “I have been an
Arrancar for less than a day! I am not going to act like you want! So just
leave me the hell alone! I’m not doing this! I’m not letting you do that thing,
and I’m damned sure not going to carry your stupid young!”
“How do you know of this all, then?” Starrk asked.
“Shiro told me what was going on, that the Hive thing was trying to take me
back to the nest. He said it tried to pull him up, the hollow part of me, and
when it did, Shiro grabbed onto my other powers and pulled them free as well.
When he did that, he turned me into an Arrancar out of necessity…and he was
weak, and he…he said he was afraid we were a beta, and he kept pushing it away,
down, ever since he awoke. But destroying the Hive creature, he couldn’t stop
it. The instincts came flooding, the heat…it began and he…he…then they found me
there…”
Ichigo’s eyes had gone wide with the memories. “It had taken everything, ripped
through every memory, pulled and clawed and ripped through my soul…it got so
mad when I tried to get their attention, when I cut myself,” he said as he
glanced at his forearm where the jagged scar had remained. “It was so mad…it
just ripped everything open, unending, and I screamed but no one heard me,
and…”
Starrk put a hand against his face. “I…I did not understand. I do not, still. I
only know what I am and always have been. I will do whatever I must to make you
happy. I told you; I have one mate in my existence, even if you do not wish me,
it is so. The cycle must complete, but…if you wish it to be so, I will leave
you when it is done, and perhaps your friends can aid you in removing the
necessity to submit to the cycle or return you to being human again.”
Ichigo stared at him, and he didn’t think he was lying. “You’ll just leave;
just like that.”
Starrk nodded. “I could command anything from you, mi amor. But I will not. I
had always known before now, when I took a mate for the rest of my life that it
would be someone that I felt needed me as much as I needed them. I planned no
coercion, and I regret that it was perceived as such during the claiming. I
would never have taken from you what you did not wish to give had I known that
you were unable to choose in that moment. So for that reason, I will not bind
you to our union, it would be unfair of me to do so.” Starrk smiled at him and
put his other hand to his face. “But until the cycle completes, I ask that you
allow me…a chance to show you that I am worthy of you.”
Ichigo swallowed and had no idea what to do.
It is the best we’re fucking going to get. He could take your ass easily back
to Hueco Mundo right now, fuck you into oblivion again and again, and you
couldn’t stop him. He could beat the living hell out of you and we can’t
resist, you gotta know, we can’t push him. We can’t push him, King. If we
do…we’re slaves to him for the rest of our existence just like any other beta.
Ichigo nodded. “Alright. But…if you fucking even touch me without my
permission, I’m going to take off your damned hands while you sleep.”
Starrk nodded. “Of course, mi amor, of course.”
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