Now this was a life she could enjoy. She got to boss around everyone within her kingdom, had a half dozen children she could sick on the ones who annoyed her, and who were the most fuzzy and huggable children to ever be born. The only thing she had quickly grown tired of, was being referred to as 'your majesty' as it just reminded her too much of king asshole. She managed to get most to change it from 'your Majesty' to 'my Queen' or even just 'Ma'am.' She was pretty sure Nel kept the Majesty part just to torment her for stealing the throne, and never mind it had been Ichigo who had accidently passed it on.

Her mate ran the war effort for the hollow side against the Quincy, and she left it to him. She was not ashamed to admit when she was out of her depth, and Quincy assholes were out of her depth. Grimmjow left the running of Las Noches to her, something Nel helped her with until she was ready to take it over full time. Dealing with stuck up Shinigami, now that was often much more fun and she loved watching their feathers get ruffled. Nel had been too nice, likely fearful of making Soul Society their enemy when they couldn't afford it. Karin knew just how desperately Soul Society needed them, and she wasn't afraid to pull the 'my family saved your asses' or 'we are nobility too, suck it up assholes' and one of her favouriteS 'you didn't even know where King 'stash was until we told you, let alone what he was doing' cards.

From what she understood of the war, it was coming to a close. Her concerns were with her city and involved with her children, all of whom were running amok now. They could often be found in the large playroom climbing over and around what appeared to be a giant jungle gym. Several other offspring had joined them over the year, many abandoned by the pregnant women who couldn't bring themselves to care for such offspring. She adopted each one of them and though they were abandoned by their mothers, most of their fathers remained in their lives. Her six had turned into twenty-two.

"Karin-sama, you have another wishing for an audience," her steward announced.

"Of course. Send them in," she agreed. When her steward said someone wanted an audience, it was because another sire had cubs abandoned by their mother and couldn't raise them alone.

To her surprise, the Adjucus who walked into the room was one she instantly recognized. He walked confidently into the room with the woman he had mated with. The woman had a sash full of wriggling cubs and had likely given birth within the last few days.

"Jackal," she greeted with a raised eye.

"Karin-sama," he offered her a slight bow, not bothering to correct her name for him. "We would like to request continued residence within Las Nochas, and a further request that your sister, Yuzu-sama, grant me the honor of legs and arms to assist with the rearing of our young." The last was said with a hint of warmth as the adjucus turned his snout to indicate the bundle.

"I see. I will think upon it. May I speak to the mother of your young?"

"Of course." He nosed the bundle of pups before exiting, leaving the two women alone with the pups.

"You wish to remain here and with him?" Karin asked.

"I do," she affirmed rather firmly. "If not him, it would have been another. He was attentive, caring even. It took me by complete surprise, for such traits are unheard of in a hollow. It was terrifying at first, but I come from lesser nobility, and the idea of an arranged marriage was one I grew up with. It would shame my family to return to Soul Society having mated with a hollow, and my children would likely be persecuted. Here, we are accepted. They will have friends to grow up with and we won't be judged for events outside of our control."

"Has he told you what hollow mating entitles?" Karin asked. "It is a lot different than what we are used to," she warned.

"Some of it. I did put my foot down on more children for a while," she chuckled.

Karin joined her, remembering her own firm talk about that. She called for tea and snacks as the two spoke. She liked this woman, a match for her own 'life sucks, deal with it and move on,' attitude. It sounded like Jackal had much of the same mindset and recalled how he had shouted at the others who had been selected for mating how they had squandered prey. He had even made sure to see her healed when she had been injured. He used his brain.

"Of course, I would never expect be given free housing. I would be honoured to help with the abandoned," she offered sadly, hugging her own young to her, as if the thought of leaving them was abhorrent. "I don't blame those that ran, but it still seems so wrong."

"I agree. I could never leave my cubs, as strange as they are. How many do you have?" Karin asked curiously.

"Four. So far I only have names for two of them."

"Try naming six, or kami forbid, Nanao's eight. It took forever to name all six."

"What names did you pick?"

"For the girls, Hime, Tsuki, and Masake after friends and family. For the boys, Fordt, Edrad, and Shaw, apparently after the closest things he had as friends. I didn't pry and was simply happy we named them all."

"Nanao-fukutaichou named hers?"

"Some of them. Shiro and Lily to name two. I honestly have a hard time remembering the rest. I got twenty-two to memorize right now," she sighed, thinking of the abandoned. Help would be gratefully appreciated. "I will speak to my sister on your mate's behalf. What is his name?"

"Chaccal Marron," she answered.

They talked some more before deciding to spare the poor male's sanity and summon him back in. Karin watched as his weary posture dropped into relief as he spotted them speaking pleasantly to each other. Later that night, after tucking in all twenty-two cubs with some help from Nel, she spooned up next to her own mate.

"Heard you had an audience today," he grunted.

"Hmm," she agreed. "Good news, we still have twenty-two and might have gained another mother to help, assuming Soul Society lets her go. Not that we will give them a choice in the matter," she offered him a feral grin.

"Any excuse to pick a fight with those pansies," he smirked back. "War's about over. Got the bastard and his last loyal troops pinned in his ice palace. We are scheduled to leave first thing in the morning."

"Bring me back a piece of his stupid mustache as a souvenir so I can burn it," she ordered.

"I will see what I can do," he promised. "We head out tomorrow to finish it."

"In that case, I should make sure you get a good night's rest while reminding you why you need to come back alive and in one piece. Roll over," she ordered.

"Oh?" he rolled onto his back obediently.

She spent the next twenty minutes riding him, slowing down when he was close to release to make sure it lasted. She arched her back and let her breast bounce with her thrusts. His hands squeezed her ass, and helped to balance her, his eyes glazed over in lust. When he was ready, he flipped her over onto her back and pounded into her, hitting all the spots that had her writhing in pleasure.

Best partner ever, she thought in a lust induced haze.

She finished before he did, something he always made certain of after regaining his humanoid form. They lay panting afterwards, bodies joined and entwinned. His hands moved from her hips to rub her stomach as he kissed and nipped at her neck.

"I can't wait to see this swollen with my brood once the younglings are gone. And this time, I will get to enjoy it."

"Decades," she snorted. Her hand rested over his, and she reluctantly admitted she looked forward to such a thing again. Maybe this time, since he was an Arrancar again, the pregnancy would be a little less of a wild ride and closer to a proper pregnancy.

They drifted to sleep and she was awoken the next morning to his kisses as he rose to shower and dress for the mission.

"Half the stach," she reminded him as he sheathed pantera at his hip.

He laughed on his way out the door. She rose, cleaned herself up, and retreated to the nursery to be surrounded by her children, both of blood and adopted. Most of the sires were there, taking a last moment with their offspring, before leaving to join the final assault. Her biological cubs were already rambunctiously playing, suggesting her mate had visited them while she had cleaned up else they would have crowded her upon her entrance. She let them distract her from the fear of watching the fighters leave.

Others arrived to leave their children behind until the nursery was full of the playing hybrids. Nanao was the last to arrive, coming in with the fighters from Soul Society and stopping to drop her eight off.

"Are you going to be alright?" Nanao asked her.

"I'll fret, but I'll survive. Be safe. I will be pissed if you manage to get yourselves killed and leave me with thirty young to care for," she threatened with a glare.

"I will," Nanao promised with a laugh, thought it sounded a little strained.

"Do me one favour though, will you?"

"Of course."

"Remind Grimmjow about the mustache. He'll know what you are talking about," she requested with an amused smirk.

"I will," Nanao promised.

With that, her fellow former prisoner headed out, leaving the pups behind with the others whos' parents were going out for the final battle. The few shinigami stationed in Las Noches guarded the walls while the hollows remining behind were either in the room with her or nearby to guard their young. Yuzu attended the young with her, her cheerfull smile helping to keep the children calm as the days passed without their fathers, or mother in the case of Nanao's offspring. The assault left the fortress vulnerable, and those that needed protection the most were secured. If the quincy were to launch an assault on Las Nochas, now would be the time they did so.

Grimmjow returned with the others a week later. He handed her a small wooden box with a smirk as if she would not notice the new scars littering his body. Still, he was alive and that was all the mattered. She accepted the box and opened it to see a small piece of bloody, dried flesh attached to a tail of black hair. She laughed and pulled him down for a deep kiss.

"Best present ever," she murmured.

"Tell that to your brother. He was horrified and kept trying to steal it to destroy it."

"Well, he is squeamish. Did everyone make it back?" she asked, already knowing it was highly unlikely there hadn't been fatalities.

"Of the abandoned, just two didn't," he answered softly, giving her two names.

With a nod, she gathered her charges and got them straightened out before taking the five orphans aside. They were too young to understand more than, papa is not coming. She did her best to assure them she would always be there for them. Grimmjow was curled up with their cubs and she noticed Nanao and Starrk collecting their eight, Starrk all but covering his family with his body to protect them.

Sires returned to claim their offspring until it was just her family, blood and adopted. Yuzu, bless her heart, took the five orphaned and six cubs so she could properly assure herself Grimmjow was back, and trace over the new scars covering his body.

Nanao let out a content sigh as her pups nestled against her, Starrk laying behind her and tracing over a new scar that crossed her hip. It was her first one and she was rather proud of it. Starrk had let her be to fight her battle and hadn't come flying in when it looked like she was in trouble. It cemented the idea of Starrk as a long-term partner.

It had helped with her issues, killing the Quincy who had tormented so many. It had felt liberating to be able to stand up to them in a straight up fight without having been ambushed.

"The pups are asleep," he noted.

"Hmm," she agreed. "Yuzu-chan offered to take them for us tomorrow night. She wanted to give her sister the first night back since she has so many to care for." She bit her lip, wondering how he was going to take her request of possibly…

"Would you be amenable to taking a few, maybe the three who lost their sire?" he asked hesitantly.

She chuckled softly so as not to disturb their pups. "I was about to ask you if you thought we could take a few."

"Great minds do think alike," he purred into her neck.

"They do indeed." She turned her head to give him a slow, deep kiss. "Love you," She whispered.

The smile that touched his lips glowed in his silver eyes. Tomorrow, she would meet up with Karin and let her know that she and Starrk would take a few of the orphans in. They would drop their offspring off with Yuzu, and then they would remind themselves they were alive with a night of languid sex. Starrk had shown her he was good at that, and it was a thousand times better in this form than when he had been trapped as an animal.

With the war over, and Shunsui acting like a kicked puppy, she was very tempted to move here where she would have all the support, and playmates, for her children. She had some support at home, but the rank and file were not so welcoming of the odd half breeds and with the war over, and by proof of her disappearance, Shunsui had a capable fukutichou. The children here would need an education, and there were not many hollows here with one to give.

The idea of being a teacher excited her, and she knew she worked great with Karin. Just another idea to run past her friend tomorrow. Starrk didn't complain about Soul Society, but she knew he was more comfortable here where the noonday sun couldn't assault his naps. Unlike Shunsui, when someone needed Starrk's attention, he didn't whine and moan about it, but rather got up and dealt with it.

If she were honest, she felt more welcomed here than in Soul Society. Yes many of the upper ranks still respected her, but she was met with a large amount of distrust from the rank and file and worse, pity from far too many. With the war over, she had a sickening feeling Central 46 was going to start pushing back against the hollows as allies, and all the laws surrounding it. She did not want to end up in a prison with her children executed because the higher ups changed their minds and decided to punish her for doing what she had to in order to survive and bring back crucial information.

"I think I would like to move here," she spoke the thought aloud.

"I would like that. It is more comfortable here. And someone needs to keep Grimmjow in check," he chuckled. "Karin can not match his strength and if he doesn't have a bone to worry, he gets testy."

Having seen his Adjucus form, she could easily see the large feline gnawing on a bone. With Starrk's approval, she felt more certain about her idea to move here. Shunsui didn't need her anymore, and her pups did. As did Karin. The young woman could use an ally she knew wasn't cozying up for rankings.

Started this thing together, might as well end it together.

It was exactly what they did. If half the population called them both Mom, well, so what? Turned out, Karin was able to keep Grimmjow pacified enough that Starrk didn't have to be a bone very often, which suited him just fine.

And that's the end. I give up trying to make a better epilogue.