Chapter 1

Kate found herself back in the cold concrete parking garage under Arbiomedical. It was just as she remembered it. Gray concrete with nothing to absorb the sounds that would echo forever. Cars, trucks and SUVs parked all over. Numbers glowed over the elevator, counting down. It dinged as it hit the ground floor. The doors opened to reveal Rick. He looked sleek and sharp in his blue silk shirt and dark blazer.

His eyes were sky blue. She hadn't seen his blue eyes in months.

"Kate." Castle smiled. It was the big, dopey, little boy smile he always had at the most interesting crime scenes. "What are you doing here?"

A gunshot echoed around the garage. Rick looked down at the growing blood stain on his crisp silk shirt.

"He's dangerous, Kate. Get away from him." Esposito stepped out of nowhere. His gun was pointed at Rick.

"No!" she screamed, as Esposito put three more bullets in Rick. "What have you done?" Rick collapsed as Kate ran to his body. She flung herself down next to it and rolled the body over.

"He didn't kill me. You did." She looked up at a second Rick. This one had yellow eyes. She looked at the gun in her hands. Smoke rolled out of the barrel.

The body on the ground wasn't Rick. It was Jerry Tyson, the Triple Killer, 3XK. He got up off the ground in one fluid motion. "Did you miss me?"

"Of course I did, sweetheart," Dr Nieman said from somewhere behind Kate. The cold walls of a surgical suite surrounded her. Kate jumped to her feet. Her gun pointed at Nieman. She was not going down without a fight.

"You don't want to do that," Rick whispered in her ear. His hand guided the gun down. "Join us, and we'll rule the night!" He nipped at her throat.

"No! Please no," Kate sobbed. Rick didn't like that apparently, because he changed into the wolf and attacked.

Kate bolted upright in bed before the wolf could get her. It was a dream. All just a dream. The familiar walls of her bedroom surrounded her. Half the bed was empty and cold.

Martha opened the door a moment after. She was in her favorite silk bathrobe with the red roses on it. "Are you alright, my dear?"

"I'm fine. Just a nightmare."

"Would you like to talk about it?" Martha opened the door further and came into the room. She sat delicately on the edge of the bed. One hand landed on Kate's knee. "It'll help. Lord knows I've had my fair share of nightmares."

"I don't want to impose."

"Nonsense. It'll help me too. I can't mother my son, but I can you. Let me mother you, please."

Kate nodded and pulled back the blankets, making room for Martha to get in. Martha's arms enveloped Kate while she recounted her dream. "And then he attacked me. This is the third time this week I've had this dream."

"You're just processing what's been going on. Richard is dangerous right now. Just as soon as he's not, he will be back here with us. Where he belongs." Martha stroked Kate's hair. "If it makes you feel better I can sleep here tonight."

"I don't want to put you out."

"Nonsense! It would be my pleasure." Kate thought about what would keep Martha up at night and agreed. Neither woman would get much sleep alone.

Castle woke in a pool of sweat. The last images of his nightmare fading from his mind. This one was different. In this one he had killed and eaten his family. But Esposito shot him. Most of the time, he killed and ate Esposito too.

The room was barren. The hotel had tried to make it homier with some wallpaper. It even had a flower design on it. The wolf had added to the decoration by ripping large holes in it. The floor was bare concrete, showing the truth of this place. The only pieces of furniture inside were a desk and a bed. The closet was a built in by the bath. It held some of his clothes, but mostly he dressed out of his suitcase in the corner.

It was a prison where werewolves were held without trial or chance of parole. And he had been imprisoned here for three long months. Exiled here every night.

The only touches that showed he basically lived here, were his laptop sitting under a layer of dust on the desk, untouched since day one, and a treadmill that gave him something to do when he couldn't sleep, like tonight.

He started the treadmill. No need for a warm up. Any injury would heal. He didn't even start off slow. Just cranked the speed and ran.

The sound of his bare feet slapping the tread filled his room. He was breathing heavy, but nothing that was too hard. Not that it would matter. After about ten minutes of this, the scent of his own blood filled the air. Some wounds had opened on his feet. The blood ran down over the tread and down onto the floor. It joined the dried blood already there.

Sweat beaded before running down his body. It felt cleansing in a way. His thoughts drifted back to his last stress test at the doctors. They had put him in a room and gave him an electrical shock. He failed the test by changing into the wolf, who promptly ate the chair. The doctor talked about changing his medications again. It would be the third in as many months.

He banished the thoughts, and just ran. There was nothing in this world but himself, the treadmill and the rise and fall of his feet. Until his alarm went off at six.

At six he left behind a trail of foot prints into the bathroom. He wasn't a morning person before, but the thought of spending more time than he had to in this place filled him with dread.

"What do you have for me, Lanie?"

The body was found in a narrow alleyway between a Thai food place and a gym. Beckett shivered in the cool late autumn air. The weather predicted snow later that night. The cold air made it harder to smell the blood and death. Not that Beckett minded.

The body was sitting on the ground, propped up by a dumpster. The eyes were only half closed. She had been cut open from groin to chest. Entrails dragged out. A few stray parts clung to the body. A short distance away were the remains of a fire. She could see that Lanie would have to get the body back to the morgue before finding out what organs were missing.

A small bouquet of sage smoldered next to her.

"We have a woman. At first glance, I'd say late 20's. Estimated time of death, based on lividity, sometime between 9pm to 4am. Death and dismemberment happened elsewhere. There isn't enough blood here." Lanie picked up the woman's hand. "There's some residue here on her hands. I won't know more until I get her to the morgue, or Castle gets here.

"How is he doing anyway?"

"Bad. I'm worried about him. This new medication is messing with him, and he's still failing the stress tests." Beckett sighed. This medication dulled his emotions, good to hold back the wolf, but devastating for a man like Castle. "He's coming today."

"He shouldn't."

"He can't write on the meds. He can't stay at home. This is all he has right now. I don't want to take it from him." Beckett kept her eyes on the dead body. It was easier than looking at her friend.

In the corner of her vision, she saw movement. Turning her head, Beckett watched as Castle came up the sidewalk. His head down, and hands in his pockets.

Today was a bad day, Beckett could tell. Castle didn't bring any coffee.

"Hey, Beckett. Lanie." She watched Castle's face as Lanie told about the victim again.

The author was almost unrecognizable as the same man from three months ago. The medications he was on to control his wolf had done a number on his body. He had lost twenty pounds. Gone were the silk shirts and sharp suits. In their place was a simple tee-shirt and jeans. Sometimes with holes in them.

He hadn't shaved in a few days and the stubble was getting long, but not quite yet to the point of being a deliberate beard. A few missed hair cuts and Castle looked more homeless than not. The only part he never forgot was his contact lenses that turned his yellow eyes dark blue. Beckett missed those sky blue eyes.

Beckett saw Castle's nostrils flare. "I can smell rose and oil. Between that and the sage, I think this was some form of purification ritual." It was said without Castle's normal flare for the dramatic. He didn't attach any wild claims about the CIA or aliens. Beckett missed that.

"The question is, purifying what?" She speculated.

Castle took another breath. "She smells like electrical smoke and steel brake dust. She took the subway yesterday."

"Can you tell her last meal?" Lanie asked.

The sarcasm went right over Castle's head. "Nothing with a strong smell. Maybe nothing at all."

"Who let the dogs out!? Who? Who?" Music blasted over the crime scene. One of the attending officers giggled. Beckett heard a notebook slap the ground as Esposito dropped it and ran after the offending officer. Her eyes followed the two as they left the alleyway.

Ryan grimaced as he picked up his partner's notebook. He brushed some of the rocks off. "The vic was found at six this morning when the Thai Garden's chef came in to do an inventory. He brought out some trash and there she was. We have officers canvasing those apartments right now. But what's come back so far is that people didn't hear anything."

"Thank you Ryan." Beckett turned to Castle.

He hadn't moved from where he had crouched next to the dead body. He was unnaturally still. His eyes locked on the dead body's.

"Are you ok, Castle?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." He shook off the spell. "But I think she was a werewolf."

AN: This is just the start of this story, but I'm going to take a short break. I need to rough draft some more chapters before I resume posting regularly. Expect a week or two before chapter 2 is out. Thanks for reading!