Jūshirō arrived at the new Seireitei Shelter early. He looked at the building, knowing no one would make the connection to the shelter at all like this. It would take some getting used to, though, for everyone. He was thankful that Yukio had been able to put them into a good place.

From the street, the place was called the Doll House, with a heart between the two words. It was a maid café, and out of the way but reasonably busy given any time of day. He walked up to the door, because the café itself wasn't open yet. He saw the keypad beside the door, and he put in the code he'd been given the day before. The door unlocked and he entered the darkened café. As he entered an automatic light came on that lit up the path to the door leading upstairs.

The café itself was done in shades of pink and white with the walls decorated with various dolls and dollhouses. The owner, Yukio's alpha Riruka, dressed the waitresses in light pink maid outfits with their choice of shoes to go with them. Lisa and Mashiro from Shinji's group had taken up jobs in the place. He knew that Riruka also employed a security guard named Giriko that would be there during the day.

He came to the door, and again had to put in a code to get upstairs. He headed up there and found that Rukia had actually beat him this morning.

"Captain, sir!" she said, standing up. "I wasn't sure if you'd be in today."

"I'm fine, the worst of it is over," he said with a soft grin. "How did moving everyone into this place go?"

"Well, it's been a little strange because the set up is different than the office space we were using. The décor is cozy, though," she said, gesturing around where the cute theme continued from downstairs.

"How did you manage to get everything set up so far?" he asked.

They had set a desk in the foyer that the stairs opened up into where Rukia had been sitting. "We've got six rooms up here; all are pretty big. There's a third level with two large rooms, too. We've put beds in three of the rooms, your office in another, and converted one into a living room area. The last one down here has been made into a kitchen and dining room. We took the two big rooms upstairs and converted them into an exam room and office for Orihime and Uryū. We've got a total of four bunks in each bedroom, so we have a total capacity of twelve. Good thing all the beds we had at the other place were stackable into bunk beds or we wouldn't have been able to keep that many open spaces."

"Very good," Jūshirō said, smiling. "I know it will be a little difficult changing when we had just gotten situated in the other place, but we have to keep everyone safe."

"Speaking of keeping everyone safe, have you heard anything about Ichigo and Renji?" she asked, frowning.

"I wish I could say I had, but Renji was told to take him off grid so no one in our ranks even would know where he was," Jūshirō said smiling at her. "I'm sure they're fine, though."

"You went into heat, so I'm sure the omega did too," she said, arching a brow.

"You don't think Renji would do anything, do you?" he asked, knowing that she had known Renji since they were children.

She shook her head. "He wouldn't unless the omega was willing, but I doubt he would be able to resist if he asked him."

"Not many can," Jūshirō sighed, thinking of his own needs. "I just hope nothing bad comes of it, either way. If he did end up mating with that omega, it could cause complications, but we'll deal with it when and if it happens."

"Renji will take responsibility, if it did happen," Rukia said. "I'm sure of it. He wouldn't shirk that, especially considering that omega hasn't been on contraception."

"Even if he had been, there's not a hundred percent guarantee that it will work," Jūshirō said, worried about that ten percent chance himself.

"Sir, what happens now?" she asked.

Jūshirō let out a deep sigh. "We wait until we—"

He was cut off by his phone ringing. He pulled it out to see it was Shunsui. Considering that they both had just gone to work, a phone call this early was not a good sign.

"Shunsui?" he asked as he answered.

"Bad news. The safehouse where they had Grimmjow and his sister was raided. They got them," he said quickly.

"Is Soi Fon alright?" he asked, worried for the woman who ran the internal affairs division.

"She got knocked out, but she's going to be fine. They knew exactly where to go. We've got to find the mole we have, or this is not going to stop. We're just lucky the omega is off grid. You haven't heard anything on Abarai and the omega, have you?"

"We were just talking about that, and I haven't heard anything yet, so we have to hope they're safe." Jūshirō looked over at Rukia.

"Is the new Sereitei location secure?" Shunsui asked.

"It is. Not as secure as the old one, but it blends in with the area around it. No one would look for a shelter in a place like this," Jūshirō told him. "It's a good choice."

"Are you still at three residents?" Shunsui asked.

"Yeah, no new acquisitions to the shelter while I was out," Jūshirō told him as he looked over the chart that detailed who was in house. Just Rose, Tsukishima, and Ggio in right then.

"With Grimmjow and Nel gone, we have no leverage against Aizen. We've got to get them back, or else we're going to have no case," Shunsui sighed. "Grimmjow was what the case was hinging on."

Jūshirō thought about it a second. "No matter what, with our ranks compromised, we're stuck. Until we can locate whoever is leaking information to him. It has to be someone in the higher ranks, or someone that has access to information easily to have known where Soi Fon took Grimmjow and Nel."

"That's the problem. No one but you and I know the new location of the Seireitei, not even the head captain knows it yet, so we know that information is safe." Shunsui sighed again. "Alright, just stay safe. I'll call you when I know anything more about the situation."

Jūshirō put away the phone and smiled slightly at Rukia. "Show me which room is my office, and I'll get to work on paperwork. I'm sure I've got a lot with the switch in locations."

"Okay," Rukia said and led him to the room they'd set up as his office. He sat down and started going through the tray of papers for the day.

At nearly noon, there was a knock on the door, and Jūshirō looked up.

"Enter," he called.

Yukio and Wonderweiss had come by. Yukio smiled at him. "Hey, Captain. I wanted to see what you thought of everything so far."

"Well, first, I want to thank you and Riruka for letting us use the space for the shelter. And second, the décor is…interesting." He looked up at the wall where there was a display of dolls.

Yukio nodded. "Yeah, Riruka does like her cute stuff," he said.

Wonderweiss came forward and deposited the bearded dragon Fuwa in front of Jūshirō on his desk. Jūshirō looked down to see he was in a tiny little maid outfit.

"The girls say Fuwa is their unofficial mascot now," Wonderweiss told him.

Jūshirō never knew what to do with the creature, but he smiled at Wonderweiss and scratched it on the head under the little maid hat. He didn't know how everything was going to work out, but so far things were looking up for them.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Aizen sat at his desk and waited for reports to come in about the search for his omega. He would find him no matter what, he had decided. No one took something from him, and he made sure of it. He would have that omega back one way or another, even if he had to kill him to get him back.

"Sir, we have a report from a couple of the teams. So far, no luck in any of the locations they've been to," the secretary said from the doorway.

"Tell them to continue to the next locations," he said as he stood up. "I think I'm going to visit our dear friend Grimmjow."

So far, they had broken into five of Kuchiki's properties and found them empty. Aizen was sure that he was right, and the redheaded alpha would take him to one of them. It was the only play that made sense. He made his way down to the room with the cells and came in to hear rough breathing and knew that Grimmjow had to be in incredible amounts of pain from his leg. He smiled. That made him exceedingly happy. In the cell next to him, his sister was seated. She was truly an alpha, though, because so far there was no sign of her breaking down.

"Well, hello there my little birdies. How are the cages?" he said as he came up to the bars of Grimmjow's cell.

"Fuck you. Kill me and get it over with," Grimmjow told him.

"Where's the fun in that?" Aizen asked. "I intend to enjoy myself quite a bit. Breaking you and your sister is part of my fun, after all."

"What the hell are you keeping us alive for?" Nel asked from her cell, standing and coming to the bars. "We're of no use to you alive."

"I just told you—fun. You see, Grimmjow here ruined a perfectly good plan, and now I have to hurt him for it. I had everything in line, and he had to go and mess with it." Aizen arched a brow. "All over an omega."

"You were beating him, and one of these days, you were going to go to far, and kill him," Grimmjow growled.

"Someone that works for me has a moral compass," Aizen said, sighing. "A shame. When I hired you to do the job of security, I did it in hopes that you would have no morals at all, and you proved me wrong. I trusted you even with my omega."

"You didn't care about that omega, you never have. He was just a tool for you," Grimmjow said.

"Well, you aren't wrong," Aizen admitted. "Love is not something I felt for him. He was an excellent test subject though. He has unique physiology, you know. Something that is very rare in omegas and is actually the reason why so few omegas contract omega sickness."

"You know this?" Grimmjow snapped his head up to stare at him, disbelieving what he was saying.

"Oh, yes. They're looking for something that links the omegas that suffer, but they'll never find it because they're looking in the wrong place. I found it a long time ago, before the omega sickness ever became a thing. A very rare genetic mutation. It makes them normally highly susceptible to impregnation. And it also reacts to certain chemicals." Aizen smirked. "Did you know I run several chemical manufacturers?"

"You are the cause of the omega sickness, aren't you?" Nel whispered. "You did it somehow."

"It's actually pretty simple, like most successful things. Under a shell company, I own a little chemical manufacturer called Dangai Chemicals. That company makes the inert compounds found in almost all pharmaceuticals manufactured in the nation. Not just omega drugs, but all of them. So, different companies buy from Dangai, and different medications get dosed with the chemical that effects specific omegas." He smiled at them. "They take even a pain killer, and they get dosed with the chemical that reacts with the specific gene. Totally harmless to everyone else, as far as I know."

"As far as you know?" Grimmjow said, staring at him openly. "You don't even know how safe it is?"

"It doesn't matter. I don't care about anyone else, and anything I buy comes from places I know that don't use Dangai Chemicals in their productions," Aizen shrugged. "What do I care if it affects more people? No one has been able to trace it back to Dangai Chemicals and they've been looking for years. Like I said, they're just looking in the wrong place."

"You're despicable," Nel said, glaring at him. "To put people in danger like that is the worst thing you could do."

"Oh, I can do worse. I don't know if your brother told you, but now I have Omega Relief coming out. A drug specifically to counteract the sickness caused by the other chemical. Of course, the price is high. And most insurances won't cover it for a long time. Fortunately, there's Omega X on the streets," Aizen smirked as he spoke, proud of his plan.

"You've built yourself a marker for both a legal and illegal drug," Nel said softly. "One that won't affect everyone, but for omegas, you'll devastate them. Why?"

"Why?" Aizen asked. "Why what?"

"Why would you do something like this? Why would you want to harm so many omegas who have done nothing wrong?" Nel demanded.

"They're omegas, that's enough."

"What do you have against alphas and omegas?" Grimmjow asked. "You've always hated them, and there's no good reason that I can see."

"I have my reasons," he snarled. "I'm done with this discussion," he said and turned and left suddenly, leaving both Nel and Grimmjow wondering what exactly that had been all about.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo spent the next day in bed with Renji. Honestly, he didn't want to leave it. For the first time in his life, he felt completely safe and comfortable with someone, and it was honestly the best feeling in the world. It didn't hurt that sex with him was frankly amazing. By the time his heat faded, Ichigo lost count of how many times they'd done it. Renji never ran out of stamina, though.

Ichigo propped himself up on his arm and looked down into Renji's face. The redhead looked back at him and smirked. "What is it?"

"I was just wondering about you," Ichigo said.

"What about me?" Renji returned.

"Well, I don't know anything about you. Who's your best friend? What are they like?" he wondered.

Renji frowned, tattooed brows scrunching for a second. "I guess that would be a guy named Shūhei Hisagi. He's a good guy, sometimes gloomy about life, but you know. Then I know a guy named Izuru Kira. He's always kinda gloomy. I tell him he never got through his emo phase. We all kind of hang around a girl named Momo Hinamori. She's kinda off, though, never could put my finger on it. And you met my friend Rukia that works at the Seireitei. I've known her since I was a kid."

"I don't have a best friend," Ichigo said sadly. "At least, not anymore. My best friends in school were a girl that had a crush me named Orihime Inoue, a nerdy guy with glasses named Uryū Ishida, and my best friend would have been Yasutora Sado, or Chad as we all called him."

"What happened to them?" Renji asked, reaching out and running a hand through Ichigo's hair gently.

"I went to work for Las Noches Corp right after high school and moved out on my own. I had to get out of there; I was tired of taking up space in my dad's home, and I felt like I needed to be on my own." Ichigo paused to turn into Renji's hand. "It's hard as an omega, you know. Because no one expects you to ever be independent. So, I tried hard to do it. I guess, in the end, I couldn't."

Renji gave him a gentle smile now. "Don't feel that way. The omega sickness takes a lot of omegas out of life for a while."

"But it's not just that. Omegas, we're not expected to be on our own. It's just expected we'll have an alpha that takes care of us our entire life. You have no idea what it's like to not have agency over your own life like that. To know that no matter what, your life belongs to another person eventually." He put his head on Renji's chest. "And now I have an alpha."

"Is it that bad, to have someone takin' care of ya?" Renji asked, stroking a hand through his hair again.

Ichigo smiled against him. "I guess not. I mean, especially not if it's you."

"I always thought I'd hate it, y'know," Renji sighed.

"Hate what?" Ichigo asked, gripping his arm over his stomach tightly.

"Being someone's alpha. I thought omegas were weak willed, whiney, and clingy. I mean, Captain Ukitake isn't, but I don't know him when he's with Captain Kyōraku alone. And Captain Soi Fon seems like she's pretty strong willed, but again, I've never seen her in private with her alpha Yoruichi. Our friend Momo is an omega, and honestly, I'm not sure how she became a lieutenant. She's always just followed anything I said we should do without question, never challenged me, and I always found it to be annoying, but not you," he said, squeezing Ichigo tightly. "You'll tell me to fuck off if ya need to."

Ichigo chuckled a little. "So, it's a good think I'm not like those omegas you don't like, huh?"

"Very good thing," Renji said. "We should get up, it's almost dinner time. We've been in bed most the day," he said, but made no move to get up yet.

"I didn't know heats would be so…intense," Ichigo said, sitting up slowly and stretching his arms over his head.

Renji snorted. "Intense is one way to put it. I've never been able to get it up so quickly in my life. They're not kidding about that pheromone shit."

"Come on, I'm hungry. Let's eat something," Ichigo said, sliding out of the bed and reaching for the yukata that he'd tossed at some point.

"Yeah, how's your head by the way? The omega sickness?" Renji asked, sitting up on the other side of the bed, grabbing his jeans and sliding them on.

Ichigo stopped as he finished tying his obi. "Strange, but it hasn't seemed to bother me since the heat started."

"Maybe it pushes back the symptoms," Renji said. "How long have you been sick with it?"

"A couple years. If it weren't for the omega sickness, I would have never ended up with Sōsuke, though," Ichigo said as they both headed out of the bedroom into the living area.

Renji looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when I got sick, I ended up sleeping with him. I don't remember it, you know, I just remember waking up in his bedroom and I knew what had happened somehow. He was sorry, said he didn't realize I wasn't aware of what was happening," he explained.

"That makes no sense," Renji said as Ichigo sat down at the dining table.

Ichigo looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"

"The brain fog, yeah, but it usually starts slow. Like little things start happening. I've never known anyone that just suddenly lost a whole chunk of time, and I've worked for Kuchiki with the omega initiatives for a long time now," Renji said, stepping in the kitchen and finding a box of those cheap toaster pastries.

"It had to be that. After that, the omega sickness started affecting me more and more, and I stopped being able to work and had to move in with Sōsuke because I didn't want to go back to my father," Ichigo said as Renji came back and handed him a pastry.

Renji stared at him and shook his head. "Something about the whole thing just doesn't add up, and it all goes back to Aizen. There's a rumor that someone was behind the omega sickness, and now that Las Noches seems to be working on a cure for it, it seems suspect to me, at least."

Ichigo frowned as he nibbled on the pastry. "But how? They've tested all the meds that we take, contraception and heat suppressants, and no one can come up with a commonality. There's different manufacturers for the meds, so no one has been able to link anyone that suffers from it."

"I don't know how, but I know that something is going on and has been for a while now. There's something that they're missing, some component that—"

The sound of a gunshot tearing through the lock on the door to the apartment startled both of them. Renji didn't have his gun; he was still shirtless and had left it by the door. He gasped and stood up to get between Ichigo and whoever it was.

"Knock, knock, anyone home?" came a voice and an extremely tall man with an eyepatch over his eye came in the room followed by five or six other men with guns. "Oh, jackpot!"

"N-Nnoitra!" Ichigo stammered, stepping back almost into the wall.

Nnoitra held the gun even at Renji and grinned a wide smile. "Hey there, Red. By the smell, you and Aizen's omega been having some fun, now haven't you? I can't blame ya, really. Locked up with a horny omega in heat, what's an alpha to do besides fuck them senseless?"

Ichigo gasped, knowing that the only one of Sōsuke's men that could have known that would be Nnoitra. He was the only alpha in his group. To be found by him of all people was the worst luck of all. He couldn't hide what had happened from him no matter what he tried. The pheromones spoke for themselves.

Renji looked ready to spring, but he stayed still, obviously knowing there was no way he could take out seven men with guns on him. Nnoitra walked past him to Ichigo and grabbed his face.

"Hey there, pretty boy. Have fun, did we? Can't tell you how long I've wanted to fuck you but knew that Aizen would kill me if I tried. Should I take advantage of the treat before me?" he said, smiling again with that too wide grin.

"Don't fucking touch him!" Renji said and Nnoitra turned, gun trained on Renji now.

"Back up, alpha boy. I hope you enjoyed fucking him, because it's the last thing you'll do once Aizen finds out what happened here. But, not like Aizen can tell the difference in my scent and yours…" he said, turning back to Ichigo who was staring wide eyed at him. "What do you say? Should I show you how a real alpha fucks?"

"Please, no," he said. "D-don't, please."

"Yeah, you're not horny anymore, are ya? Bet you're not even slick enough to fuck. Well, better get your bitch ass back to the boss. Boys, get Red," he said and grabbed Ichigo by the upper arm, tugging him behind him as the other men surrounded and grabbed Renji and zip tying his wrists together.

They were both walked out to a waiting van, where they were shoved in the back with the gun wielding men. Back on the table in the apartment, Renji's phone beeped. It was a 911 text message.

You're not safe. Move from your location. Stay on the move.

A few minutes later, they pulled into the building that had the penthouse in it. Ichigo was scared out of his mind because he knew he was in trouble, more trouble than he'd ever been before. His heart was pounding in his chest. He kept looking at Renji, trying to get more of his smell to calm himself, but it wasn't helping much. What was Sōsuke going to do?

They were both roughly pulled from the van and taken up the elevator to the top floor by Nnoitra. When the door opened, Nnoitra shoved both of them out into the room and Ichigo saw Sōsuke standing by the big windows.

"Well, if it isn't my errant omega," he said, turning around to face them.

"Um, sir, you ain't gonna wanna hear it, but…" Nnoitra trailed off, looking at Renji.

Sōsuke's face changed into fury quickly from neutral. "You touched him."

"He's my omega now, and there's nothing you can do about it, you bastard!" Renji spat at him. "I've bonded him."

Sōsuke sucked his teeth for a second then stepped forward and landed a hard right on Renji's face, sending him to his knees. Sōsuke turned and grabbed Ichigo by the front of the yukata and jerked him forward.

"And you. You let another man touch you when you are mine."

"I don't belong to you!" Ichigo said, voice stronger than he expected. "I don't belong to anyone! I'm making my own choices now, not you anymore."

Sōsuke growled and shoved him backward as he stepped away. "What should I do with you? You're probably pregnant now unless you were careful." When Ichigo only blushed in response, Sōsuke shook his head. "Of course, you weren't careful. Not only did you let him fuck you, you let him knot you. What were you thinking? You may be stupid, but even you know that there's an eighty percent chance of pregnancy when knotting."

"I don't care! Renji is my alpha and there's nothing you can do about it! You can beat me, kill me, whatever, and it won't change that fact!" Ichigo snapped at him, still surprised at his own voice being as strong as it was.

Sōsuke turned and glared at him. "Oh, you're right. I can't change that. You're soiled now. The only omega I want is one that hasn't been tainted by an alpha. That means I don't want you anymore. Do you understand now? I don't care what happens to you. So, the question is, what do I do with a possibly pregnant omega that I despise and want to suffer?"

"Do whatever you want. It won't change things," Ichigo said, looking down, knowing that most likely his life was forfeit.

"I think some of the men might be interested in spending some quality time with you," he said, looking up at Nnoitra who was grinning in return. "What do you think? Would you like to spend some time with some of them? Perhaps I'll just turn you into the building whore, hand you off to whoever wants you. That seems appropriate to your station."

"You fucking bastard!" Renji snarled, jerking out of Nnoitra's grip and lunging for Sōsuke.

Sōsuke side stepped him and turned, landing another punch across his face. "Oh, you be quiet. I haven't decided what to do with you, either. Obviously, you can't live knowing who I am."

Renji got to his knees. "The Shinigami all know who you are."

"Oh, I know that. My informant inside has told me all about what Grimmjow said. He's suffering himself right now in a cell in lower level. I haven't killed him yet, mostly because I want to make him suffer more. And I'll do the same with you. Making you suffer, that is. You'll all suffer for turning against me," he said, grabbing Renji by the hair and hauling him to his feet again.

He looked at Nnoitra. "Toss the Shinigami in the cell next to Grimmjow. As far as Ichigo, well, I've got long reaching plans for you now. Not only can you entertain some of the men, you'll be the perfect test subject for Omega X, especially if you're pregnant. Then, when you have the bastard child, I'll use it for my own work, experimenting on some new children's drugs."

"No, Sōsuke, please, I love you still!" Ichigo tried.

"I don't care anymore. Take him to Barragan's boys. They can have him first. The let Grimmjow's boys have a shot. I don't care what they do with him," he said, waving a hand dismissively at them.