Kate's blood had turned to ice, her mind running wild with all the possibilities. She could run, could just shove him out of the way and run. She could… she could follow her father's advice and just tell him. Swear him to secrecy. Though a part of her knew that if he knew he could be a liability. What if he told someone else? Or worse, what if he told his daughter and mother and they told someone else? She deep down knew she could trust him but she wasn't so sure his trust in them would be any good for her. And how long would it take before the one behind her mother's murder would find out about her secret if she told him? Fuck, how did this even happen? Why had she been her wolf when he was out there in the woods? Why hadn't she felt his scent? Maybe she had. Suddenly she felt her whole body relax, her shoulders slumping down in defeat. She had smelled him. She'd just chosen not to care. She felt her head hang low as she started taking deep breaths.

"Yes," she whispered, just a little louder than a breath and almost not loud enough for him to hear. But he did.

She only glanced at him as she saw his whole body first tense and then she could smell the relief and …. was that … joy? coming from his body.

"You're a werewolf?" he squealed and she flinched as she thought about Alexis and Martha who were probably upstairs. Sure, he'd closed the door but still. Without saying anything she just nodded, hoping he wouldn't demand her to say it aloud. "This is so cool!" His childish-like excitement had her growl and roll her eyes in irritation, also had her arms finding themselves going around her middle in order to hug herself. It didn't help much but at least she started to feel like she had somewhat control over her body, and a chance to shield it from his observing eyes.

"No, it's not. And stop yelling, it's not something we want to tell everyone," she hissed as her arms tightened around her.

"We?" Of course he noticed that one word admitting there's more of her than he should know. "Who else? Ryan? No, wait, Espo! That would explain his protectiveness of you and Ryan, if he sees you as part of his pack," Castle immediately started theorizing and Kate shook her head.

"What? No! None of them know," she said and then narrowed her eyes at him, really staring at him with a promise of a threat in her eyes. "And they can't know."

He just grinned back and she wondered how he had never seen her threats as real. It was almost like he couldn't be terrified of her, not like other humans were when she strained her eyes on them.

"So, does that mean I'm the first human who knows about you?" his excitement didn't falter at all and she had to bite her lower lip in order not to get affected by it.

"No, you're not," she said truthfully before changing the subject. "And don't you dare add this part of me to Nikki Heat."

He chuckled, "Who would believe it was real anyway?" When he saw the terrified look in her eyes his smile softened and he shook his head. "I promise I won't. Nikki Heat won't have anything to do with werewolves part from that perhaps the wacko-cases or superstitious criminals she might stumble upon, out of which none will turn out to be actual werewolves."

Castle could see her body relax and wondered who the first human knowing her secret was, but figured since she changed the subject she probably didn't want to talk about it. Yet. He made a mental note to remember to ask her at a later time, when she felt more comfortable with him knowing the truth. And even though he had millions of questions he did notice the reluctance from her to continue this conversation, and so he decided to ask something else.

"So, captain Gates shut down the case?"

He immediately saw the relief mixed with the anger he'd seen when she first walked inside his door that evening and knew the distraction had worked.

"Yeah, she called me in about an hour ago and told me. Said the case had gone cold and that the mayor along with 1PP was asking her why she still had her best detectives on the case when there were so many more murderers out there. Can you believe that?"

"Maybe it's for the best," he said and the daggers shooting out of her eyes made him sigh as he prepared to explain himself. "We're not supposed to work the case anyway, not yet. Not when they're watching you so closely."

Kate felt frustrated, not because he was being impossible, but because he was right. This way they would stop looking at her looking into the case faster because it would truly look like she wasn't working the case anymore. With a sigh she wiped her face with her hands, continuing one of her hands into her hair in order to untangle the tangles that had appeared sometime during her run to his loft.

"I just…" she started as she looked down in the book he'd written in again. "It feels as though I'm letting her down, myself too. If I hadn't been fast enough, that bullet would've gone through my heart."

"You're not, we're just putting it on pause for a while. Just like we agreed at the cabin." His ocean eyes searched hers and when she let herself meet them she knew it was the right thing to do. For now. With that she nodded, agreeing once again with his plan to wait a while. "So, superspeed huh?" Castle questioned and she looked down at the book again.

"Where did you find all this anyway?" she asked instead of answering as she read the pointers he'd written down.

He shrugged his shoulders and walked closer to be able to read what she was reading. "There's this thing called the internet, plus there's quite a few e-books to buy as well," he stated and she 'oh'ed.

"Then, yes. I wouldn't call it superspeed, but my reflexes are faster than humans'. Same with the strength, since we run a lot and use a lot of our muscles in a way humans don't then we are usually stronger," she explained as she picked up the book to start look through it.

"Really? Do you have better eyesight as well? Hearing? How does your smell work considering you work with dead bodies, doesn't the smell get too much?" he scrunched his nose and Kate didn't know wether to laugh at his eagerness to learn or feel terrified for letting him know. Cause it did terrify her that he now knew.

"I can see better in dark than most, actually most of my senses are alike a wolf's. So, the smelling thing is both a curse and a blessing. If the killer's close and has left his or her scent at the crime scene I can follow it and then find the evidence I need to prove who the killer is."

"Ah, so all those hunches are practically you cheating," he stated and she huffed.

"It's not cheating when it comes to the truth, just because I use my senses doesn't make it cheating," she told him and continued looking through his book. One question popped out on the last page he'd written on. How does one turn? Bite? Genetics? Did that mean he wanted to know in order for him to be turned or for him to know what not to let her do to him? It wasn't something she felt willing to tell him just yet.

"Why doesn't Ryan or Esposito know? Does Lanie know?" Castle asked and brought her back to the now.

"No, no one knows. It's not safe for us, if people found out we were real all the wars against one another would stop but the whole world would turn against us instead," Kate explained the same way her father and mother had told her when she was little and wanted to tell her friends so she could be herself around them.

Her parents had been careful to teach her it was for the best if no one knew about her abilities or why she had them. Her father had at a few moments admitted he'd not wanted her to get his genetics due to the injustice that left her when she wanted to play with her friends. But at the same time he was glad because it made her so much alike him while she got her looks from her mother. Her mother had also told it from her perspective, how she'd loved her father long before he told her what he was and that if he'd told her sooner she probably would've gotten too scared of him.

"But," he brought her back again. "Who else knows? You said I wasn't the first human."

She could feel his hesitation, the curiosity that quite often got the better of him. He was always too invested in her, always wanting to know more than she would've let on before. But now it was no point in really hiding anymore since he knew her darkest secret.

"My mom. She was human, my dad's the wolf," Kate told him and he 'oh'ed. "Which is why she wasn't able to react fast enough when she was stabbed. Also the reason my dad beat himself up with booze, blaming himself for not turning her sooner."

"So you can turn whoever? You don't have to be born with it?" Castle questioned and she bit the inside of her cheek.

Before she could come up with an answer she heard a creak in the staircase and so she shut her mouth and gestured towards the sound for him to understand why she got quiet. Castle looked through the book shelves and saw his daughter walk towards the fridge. They stayed quiet, Castle watching as his daughter grabbed a bottle of water before returning to her bedroom and Kate simply listening to hear the bedroom door click shut again. Once it's shut Kate took out her phone to check the time.

"I should get going, Gates wants us to start early tomorrow," she mumbled, still a bit irritated by her new captain.

"Wait, what about all the questions I have?" He gave her a pleading expression, probably hoping it would make her stay longer.

Kate narrowed her eyes, tried to think about a way that would work for the both of them. "Fine, two more questions but then I really have to get going."

He jumped with excitement and she wasn't able to stop the chuckle escaping her lips at his childishness. She never figured he would take all this so lightly, never had heard of a human taking things so easily when it came to being opened into the world of werewolves.

"Okay, two questions… let me just think," he said and she chuckled again.

"Why, I thought you already had the questions," she teased him and he smirked.

"Of course I do, but you just limited it to only two, I gotta think about which ones I want answered the most right now," he said with a 'duh' kind of voice and she shook her head. He was ridiculous. My ridiculous.

She waited, and waited, and waited. She observed him and could see thoughts come and go as he tried to come up with which to ask her. He softly mumbled to himself and she wondered if he'd forgotten about her answer about her senses earlier, if he'd forgotten she could hear him clear as day even though she shouldn't.

"Okay, first question," he suddenly turned to her and she prepared herself mentally. "Are you able to turn whenever, no matter how the moon looks?"

"The whole full moon thing is just a myth, the full moon just makes it even easier for us to see in the dark but it's not really something we need," Kate explained as best she could.

When she took in a deep breath to prepare for his next question she could smell the nerves rolling off his body, and she felt her whole body stiffen at the realization that his next question would most likely be a hard one.

"Can I see you turn?"


A/N: I'm so so so so so sorry for the long wait I'm putting you guys through. I'm just kinda stuck... I want to continue it but as of right now I have no clue in what direction I want to go with this story. I'm working on it, I can promise you that! Right now I'm regretting posting this story without a full story already written in my head, I'm sorry I did that to you guys.

I don't know when I will be able to update next time, have a lot at work too which doesn't exactly help. Hope you're all good though, until next time, xxxx