For over a decade, the dragon lay hidden amongst the people. No one to slay him, no one to pull the reins. Not a friendly dragon, like they have in movies these days. A dangerous one. One set to kill. Ready to set fire to anything that happens to come in its path.

For over a decade, Kate Beckett had been looking for this dragon. Searching. Hunting – hunting, that is, until she became the hunted. Because one day, she got too close. Because he underestimated her once. And then over, and over again. So one day, he had her maimed.

But Kate Beckett is a tiger. She's a huntress.

Yesterday she was hanging over the roof of a building, with her life flashing before her eyes. With his voice – a rope, tethering her to the here and now. So she held on. Ryan came just in the nick of time, and pulled her back up. But she held on for him.

Castle.

They say when you're dying, you get this moment of clarity. Where priorities change, or become apparent. Yesterday, finally, she realized that she just needed one thing – wanted one thing. Him.

Castle.

She turned in her badge, and her precinct issued gun. She resigned from the one thing that had been her life for so long. When had it gotten to the point that she couldn't live without him? She didn't see it coming. She had no idea.

Castle.

Yesterday, she made her choice. She wouldn't follow this thing to her grave. He asked her to walk away from it. Now she saw the sense in that. She walked away from it. But it followed her anyway. Even this option didn't give her freedom. In essence, she is caged.

Suddenly, Maddox wasn't a problem anymore. Bad karma blew up in his face. Literally. Good riddance. The file blew up too. Together, her team, her three boys didn't let it end there. They may not be getting along. But they're here, working as a unit because it's her life at stake. Her boys. What was she thinking? Going into this blindly, thinking that she had nothing to lose. She had everything to lose. She wouldn't have broken just herself, she would have broken all of them. Taken away pieces of them. No. No more.

They pieced it together. Solved the puzzle and suddenly – in an instance that punched her with a blinding force, she had a name. A face to go with it. A face that was on posters everywhere. Senator William Bracken, being groomed for the vice presidential post.

"Let me take you someplace safe, Kate."

It was sweet. He was sweet. But it was blaringly obvious that there was nowhere to run from this. Even if there was, could she turn tail and run? She told him that she'd never be safe – and then she sought refuge in the one place that she felt safest. A hundred times – no, thousands of times by now, she had wanted to go there – into his embrace. He was her safe place. First it was just his books, his words. Then it was just his presence, his existence in her world. Now, now it was real. She was in his arms, surrounded by him as he engulfed her – pulled her close; so close that she could feel herself melting into him and him into her. Could hear his heart beating. Say something reassuring. This was reassuring.

She watched him as he lay on her bed. Thousands of thoughts could be flitting through her head. Only, they weren't. There was just pain. Worse than the pain she had to suffer through the last summer without him. A bullet through her heart hurt less. From what she was about to do – he'd be the one getting the scar. But he would be alive. Leaving her heavy heart with him, where she knew it was safe, with one last look, she took off.

The hidden dragon had surfaced, only to be seen by her – and her team. Once she left Castle at home, safe, she could feel everything again – the burn of the dragon's fire. Her mother, Montgomery, Smith, her own life and probably countless others over the years. Now she could be facing it again, poking the dragon. She could be in danger again.

But Kate Beckett is a tiger. She's a huntress.

And she's on the prowl.

She found him and played a dangerous game. Power. It all comes down to it. A little lie, a little fib. She made a deal with the devil. She struck a deal with Bracken. He thought she had the files. He thought she had the power, and therefore, she did.

As a reminder, she left him with a mark on his face. Her mother's ring, that was an anchor, and a weight for her for such a long time – it branded him. To remind him, that her bite was more powerful than his.

"Tell me you didn't – " Castle begged her with his words and his eyes.

She just smiled, as Bracken walked away – spared for the time being, but not unharmed, and definitely not unmarked.

He wore his heart on his sleeve. And hers too. It was lucky for their currently secret relationship that neither of her boys saw Castle's face, because no one – no one would be able to misinterpret the look on his face. And it was directed at her. For her. All of him, for her.

Justice – she would hunt for it next, but she would be smarter about it. Because Kate Beckett is a crouching tiger, lying in wait for the perfect time to attack. Justice would be hers someday, just not today.

A/N: Ummm.. It's different than my usual stuff but when you feel the need to write, it doesn't leave you till you get it out of your system...SO! If you've gotten this far down the page, I thank you heartily for reading. : )