Castle couldn't stop shaking. The phone call he'd just gotten shook him. He wasn't sure what to believe. Was it true? How was he supposed to trust the man on the phone? How was this possible? And why was it his job to call back the detective?

"Richard? What's wrong?" his mother's voice forced its way into his ears and he looked up to see his mother observing him. She only ever observed him like that when it looked like he'd seen a ghost. Maybe he had.

Without second thought he explained the phone call to his mother. How the man hadn't really introduced himself but simply stated he was a friend of Montgomery who was in debt to the deceased captain. Castle had tried asking for the man's name before he could cut the call but he'd just repeated the same words over and over. She needs to stay away or they will kill her.

"Darling, you need to tell her," his mother said once Castle was done telling her everything he could remember from the strange call.

Castle wiped his hands down his face, halfway trying to hide from his mother and from the world. "I don't know how she'd take it, she'll run right at them. It won't stop her, no matter how much I try to stop her, she'll run right at them. And they will kill her. I'll lose her," he mumbled.

"But if you don't tell her, she'll never forgive you," his mother reminded him. "Cause there's no way she won't find out. She's not only a detective but, according to you, New York's finest."

His mother was right, she would find out, it wasn't a matter about if but about when. Didn't make it any less worrisome though. With a sigh he started raising from the couch, looking towards the stairs as his thoughts flew onto his daughter and what she'd think.

"Oh don't worry about her, I'll tell her where you're going." Castle turned his attention to his mother still sitting on the couch, waving her hand in a dismissing matter. "Go. Just go. Talk to the girl."


Castle knocked on the door three times before giving up. Maybe she was still out for that run. That was a hell of a long run. Maybe too long. He took out his phone, pulled up their conversation and sent a quick text asking if she was coming home soon, that he had something important to tell her. When she didn't answer after five minutes he started calling her. And when that didn't work he truly started to worry. What if the shooter had already found her? What if they had attacked her during her run? What if…

Castle decides to go against the rules and call Ryan, screw the new captain. Besides, who said she needed to find out.

"Castle? Why are you…"

"Beckett won't answer my calls and she's not at home. She went out for a run and I think I'm overreacting but could you track her phone for me?" Castle interrupts the detective, feeling panic causing through his veins.

"Sure, hold on," Ryan didn't even seem to hesitate before tapping away at his computer. Which made Castle realize he must've still been at the precinct. "Found it. But if she's fine don't tell her it was me tracking her."

"No problem, I'll say it was Esposito," Castle said and the detective gave him an address which he immediately wrote into his phone in Google Maps. "Thanks!"

"Text me!" Ryan managed to say before they hung up.

Castle looked at the map and wrinkled his forehead. It showed she was out in the middle of a forest not far outside the city. What the hell would she be doing there? It didn't take a minute longer before he set off towards his car to speed away towards the dot on his phone. He didn't exactly follow the speed limits and so he hoped there wouldn't be any cops on the roads he was driving past.

"This can't be right," he followed the GPS onto a small, rocky road with trees and bushes on each side. Why would she go here? He couldn't help but wonder if she'd been taken and that's the reason she was in the middle of the forest.

With a deep breath he tried to keep himself calm as he was getting closer and closer to her position. Or, at least her phone's position. Through the thick green he started to spot something looking like a cabin and he started glancing between his phone and the cabin in order to conclude her phone was indeed inside it. Hopefully she'd be too. Castle had to slow down the car in order to be able to drive between the trees and bushes since it looked like someone tried to hide the road leading to the cabin. As soon as he'd finally gotten past all the greens he slowed the car to a stop. Her car was there. Castle wasn't sure if he was supposed to be relieved or stressed. Killing the engine he didn't hesitate before getting out of the car, steering his steps towards the door, behind which his phone still told him she was positioned. He found it weird that she hadn't moved an inch since he started the search for her.

"Beckett?!" Castle called out as he knocked on the door.

He waited, listened. No answer. He knocked again.

"Kate?!" He tried pushing the door-handle and when it went down without any resistance he didn't dare wait any longer but stormed inside as he called out her name again.

While rummaging the cabin for his partner he was surprised to stand face to face with pictures of a baby-Beckett along with teenage-Beckett a little now and then. So, this was the famous Beckett-cabin she'd been telling him little about.

"But why would she be here?" he mumbled out loud as he continued to think about it. Why go out to their cabin to take a run?

A sudden movement through the window made him jerk towards it, immediately looking out to see what had moved and caught his attention. What he saw immediately froze him and made him do a double-take. He had to rub his eyes in order to actually believe what he was seeing. Maybe now he understood why she was way out here.

Kate Beckett was indeed out in the woods running. Naked. At least that's what it looked like, because she was incredibly fast. He narrowed his eyes, tried to focus on her. Too fast. She was mostly a blur. Weird. Castle shook his head and looked outside again only for her to be nowhere to see. He turned around and walked outside as quick as he could to move to the back of the cabin, trying to spot his partner.

"Beckett?!" he shouted as he started looking around. "Beckett?!"

She would most likely kill him once he found her, especially if she was indeed naked, but he was still too worried about her to care about his own life. Castle set off towards the direction it had looked like she was running and continued to call out her name. After a few shouts he didn't only call her by her surname but started shouting her first name, hoping she'd get tired of him and actually answer. He kept glancing back in order to make sure he never lost sight of which way was back to the cabin. It was at one of those glances that he suddenly stumbled in slippery mud and he had to catch himself against a tree.

"What the…" he muttered when he looked down and saw the big paw prints in the same mud he just slipped on. The prints were bigger than a dog's and just as the thought of wolves came to him he started wondering if they weren't even bigger than those too. Also, the probability of wolves so close to a cabin in a forest not that far from the city didn't feel right either. But maybe he was wrong, maybe there were wolves out there. Then it wasn't safe for her to run all alone. "Beckett! Where are you?!" he called with an even louder voice, vibrating with panic.

Without thinking he started to move faster through the forest, losing sight of the cabin, but for the moment he didn't care. All he cared for was finding his partner and… a sudden growl had him spin around to find himself stand eye to eye with a wolf. A big wolf.

"Easy," he whispered, a hand reaching out in front of him as if to keep the animal at a great distance from him.

When he locked eyes with the beast there was something about them, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what. His heart was pounding so hard he was certain the wolf could hear it. Castle tried to quickly remember everything he knew about wolves, which he cursed himself for not knowing more about. The only things he could remember were that they usually didn't attack unless threatened and that they had sharp teeth that could go through human muscle and flesh with ease. Especially considering the size of this wolf.

"I don't taste good you know," he started talking to the wolf in a low voice. Quickly he darted his eyes around them to see if he could figure out what way he'd come from, which way the cabin were. Why didn't he keep track? "You don't by any chance know where I came from?"

He turned back his attention to the wolf and saw it put its head to the side, its ears pointing towards him. Was it listening to him? Looking at the wolf he started to actually look at the wolf. Wasn't it unusual for wolves to have brown fur? Chestnut brown now that he thought about it. And those eyes, he felt like he knew those eyes. Before he could think any further the wolf took a step towards him and his heart started to race immediately, fear filling him as he took two steps back to keep the distance. The wolf growled low before making some kind of low howling and shaking its head in a certain direction before strutting there. For a second Castle stood frozen at his feet, but when the wolf stopped to look back at him she gave off a low growl again and he knew that eye roll! When the wolf started strutting again he didn't hesitate to follow.

"Where're you leading me?" he asked but was almost certain he already knew the answer.

The wolf made a barking noise and he wondered if it was an attempt to answer him. Castle thought about this new information. Could it really be that it was Beckett leading him to her cabin? Or was he simply hallucinating? Maybe she had a big dog as a pet? A dog that looked very much like a wolf? No, those eyes told him otherwise. And come to think of it the fur was the exact same color as her hair. It would also explain the speed to be able to spot the sniper and dodge the bullet before it hit her. Or him. But it didn't explain why she always was so determined to prove him magic and all things supernatural didn't exist! Or maybe it did. Maybe, just maybe, she didn't want him to know. But why wouldn't she want to?! This was awesome!

A low growl pulled him out of his thoughts and he suddenly saw the wolf had stopped, which had made him step closer to her than he'd planned on getting. He created some distance because, no matter if he was right or not, the wolf didn't exactly seem comfortable with him being so close. The wolf met his eyes before turning her head forward, following her gaze he noticed the cabin right in front of them.

"Thanks," he said with a cheery tone and looked back to the wolf.

Without anything else the wolf turned around and ran back into the woods, disappearing between all the trees and bushes. Castle's heart skipped a beat and he couldn't wait till she came back as herself.

To be continued...


A/N: Thank you so much for your continued support! (Even though I take time posting...) Hope you enjoyed this chapter and hope you all had a great Christmas/Holiday and will have a great New Year! Until next time, xxxx