Kate took a deep breath, and let out her fears.
"That sniper in the cemetery? I have a feeling he knows what I am now, heard hunters are on their way here to test me and everyone I'm close to." She felt his arms tighten around her and she bit her lip. "I don't want them anywhere close to you, but if they do I don't want them to have any suspicions about you being a wolf."
He was quiet for a few minutes before opening his mouth. "Wouldn't it be better if I was a wolf instead? Wouldn't we be stronger in numbers?"
"No, it's not really safe that first time as a new wolf, there's no real control. And having hunters after you aren't exactly the best first time either," she told him and he let go of an 'ah'.
"How do you know about the hunters?" he asked and she smirked as she turned around.
"We managed to infiltrate them not that long ago with a human being close friends with one of my dad's childhood friends. He's been keeping tabs on them without actually being in on the hunting;" she explained.
"That's so cool!"
Kate turned around in his arms again. "You told me I couldn't look into my shooting, but…" she thought about it but then suggested the deal she just came up with. "If we find out who's behind it all and stop the hunters, I promise to change you."
She could see the excitement and fear build in his eyes and she wondered if the deal was a good idea at the same time as she felt like it was time to start investigating again.
"Deal," he said and leant down to kiss her lips again. "So, where do we start?"
She thought about it for a few minutes before remembering what had stopped her in the first place. "The one calling you, he said he was a friend of Montgomery's right? Why don't we start there?"
"How?"
Kate shook her head, her fingers dancing down his shoulders to his naked chest. "Let's figure out all that tomorrow."
Castle felt surprised but could feel his heart pick up speed again, the fire was still illuminating her beauty and when she smiled that teeth-wide-tongue-biting smile he knew he was a goner.
"That's a plan," he agreed with her and let his fingers start unbuttoning her shirt. Well, his shirt but on her. He bent down to claim her lips with his again and it ignited the fire in both of them. Once the buttons were undone he's not hesitating to cup her breasts and start massaging them, it thrilled him how she was gasping in his mouth and made it his mission to keep her gasping and moaning for the rest of the night.
It took them quite a while to locate the name of Montgomery's friend, Smith. But once they did they managed to track him down and meet with him in a dark parking garage one evening.
"Detective Kate Beckett and Richard Castle, to what do I bring this pleasure?" mr Smith asked and they were both surprised when he so clearly stated their names without even trying to not know who they were.
"Mr Smith, I believe you made a call to Castle a couple months ago. You said Montgomery sent a package and we would like to see that package," Kate said with as strong of a voice as she could muster. This was their only lead.
"Not possible."
"Why not?" Castle questioned before she managed to get angry.
"Because it's in a safe place, and the deal was for you to back off, detective. And for you, mr Castle, to keep her in place."
Kate quietly growled beside him and he slowly let his hand land on the low of her back to keep her calm. Why did that work?
"Tell us where and we'll go get it," Castle demanded.
"If I do that then there will be nothing stopping them from killing the both of you, perhaps they might even go after the ones around you to make sure you haven't told anyone. This is the one thing I owe Roy to do, don't disappoint him."
Kate felt herself losing grip and she walked up to the man, getting close enough to smell the sudden fear coming out of his body. She might've been a tad faster than a human should be.
"Don't you dare, we're trying to catch a killer, the same one who killed Montgomery. If anything you're the one keeping them safe, you're the one stopping us from getting justice," she growled and she could tell he was starting to glance around to find a way out of there. Not on her watch.
"Just give us what we want," Castle came to her side, his hand once again landing against her back and she couldn't help but wonder if he was afraid she was going to do something she'd regret later. She's not that out of control. But this is part of what she'd been talking about when she'd said there's a period of time when you have to learn to control yourself. At least she'd been born with it and therefore been learning her whole life.
Smith was quiet for a couple minutes, his eyes glancing between the writer and the detective, probably trying to figure out what his chances were whatever he did. Kate didn't stop staring at him with that look that had scared everyone, apart from Castle which still made her wonder why.
With a sigh Smith finally looked down in defeat. "Fine," he said before he looked around them in order to make sure they were alone. "Come with me."
Coming into Smith's apartment all hell broke loose. There was a guy there with a gun waiting for him. Kate felt the hair on her back rise just as Smith was captured in a choking hold and dragged towards a chair. She quickly pushed Castle back before she jumped at the guy holding Smith. Once she came closer she was hit with the same scent she'd come across at the cemetery those months ago.
She lost her grip at the surprise and found herself on the ground pretty quickly. She jumped up again and started fighting with the guy, who, for a human, was fast and strong. That's when she realized something she hadn't been able to smell at the cemetery. He wasn't human. Kate growled at that and let her fists fly and block his fists. She managed to knock him down only to fall down herself on the leg he kicked under her feet. Before she could get up again he was over her, taking a choking hold on her with his hands around her neck. She tried pushing him off of her, but since they were the same it wasn't as easy as she'd been hoping. Punching him in the chest didn't work and so she used her legs to get them between them in order to kick him off of her. She started coughing and had to catch her breath before she could look up, what she saw made her veins freeze and she let go of a scream.
She pushed herself off the floor and stumbled towards her partner, who was lying on the floor next to a dead-looking Smith. What made her terrified wasn't the man who had the files that could solve all her problems, but the bite that was as clear as day on her partner's neck. She looked around to find the other wolf was gone. She tried focusing her hearing and found no one close beside for the neighbors seeming to walk around anxiously. That's when she also heard the sirens not far away. She turned to her partner and carefully started patting his cheek.
"Castle? Ri-ick, wake up," her voice betrayed her, cracking to show how unstable she was. "Come on, Rick. We n-need to go."
She inspected the bite and traced the lines with her fingers as light as possible. Damnit. They needed to get out of there. The only thing that kept her from breaking apart right that moment was the fact that she could still hear his heartbeat and his breathing being steady. She heard the sirens getting closer and mumbled a row of profanities. Quickly and carefully she bent down and let her tongue lick his wound, that way it wouldn't bleed anymore. Then she locked one arm under his torso and the other under his legs, thanking whoever was listening that she was stronger than she'd be if she was only human, and stood up with him in her arms. There was no way they'd be able to make it out undetected through the front door and so she quickly located the fire escape. She knew she couldn't walk around carrying him like this but at least the escape led to an empty alley and there she'd have a few more minutes to think of what to do.
She hid them behind a dumpster, putting him in her lap with his head against her chest, and tried to wake him up once again. It was pointless, once the bite took and he was knocked out it would take hours before he woke up again. And once he woke up he would start to feel the change. She took out her phone, feeling her tears run down her cheeks. What if he wouldn't make it?
"Dad?" she cried into the phone when the old man answered. "He was bitten b-but not by m-me. Police will be here any minute, they can't see us. They can't see him."
"Where are you? I'm on my way," her dad answered and she could hear him pick up the keys and exit the house.
They ended the call and she hugged the writer closer to her. "Please, please make it. Please," she whispered into his ear, kissing his head every now and then.
"Here," Jim held out a mug that smelled of coffee and she shook her head. "It's decaf."
She accepted the cup and took a sip, her eyes never leaving her partner still unconscious on the couch in her father's house.
"He's going to make it, Katie," her father tried reassuring her and she bit her lip, trying to keep it from shivering.
"You don't know that," she whispered. "You know there's a higher risk of not surviving when it isn't a soulmate's bite."
She heard her father swallow hard and felt her heart skip a beat. An hour had gone since he was bitten and she hadn't left his side other than when her father forced her to look after her wounds, and even then she'd not let him be alone but had told her father to sit with him.
"So, this other wolf," Jim started, probably trying to get her to think about something other than her soulmate fighting for his life beside her. "Did you get a good look at him? A good smell?"
Kate was grateful for her father and tried to remember as best as she could. "He was a bit taller than me, dark brown hair, blue eyes. He looked military."
They kept on talking, Jim tried calling some of his wolf-friends in order to snoop around, also told them hunters were on their way and that the person he was looking for had gone after his daughter and was most likely the one to tell the hunters where to find them. This made the wolf a traitor and now it would make it almost impossible for him to hide. Jim also made sure they would call if they found him.
"There's not much more we can do now other than wait," her father told her after all the calls he made.
"Mhmm," she hummed, observing her partner lying still beside her.
"You know, the way you're looking at him right now reminds me of the look your mom always had when she looked at me," Jim said and Kate looked at her father.
"What do you mean?" she asked, not sure why he was bringing it up.
He smiled at her. "It just reminds me of how real love looks like. You know, soulmates and all that. Sometimes I forget what it felt like, when your mom was taken from us I didn't think I'd ever see it again. And honestly a part of me hoped you wouldn't have to go through it since losing your mother was the worst that ever happened to me, I almost wished I'd never met her. But now, seeing how much happier you've been since you met him I'm glad you're able to feel as alive as you have. And when he gets through the change it'll all be on a much deeper level because he'll feel the exact same way."
"If he gets through it," she mumbles with a lump in her throat.
"Not if, when," he said with certainty and she so wished she could have the kind of faith he did. "A soulmate's bite might be better but the fact that he has a soulmate already on this side is brightening his chances of making it. If you hadn't been his soulmate on the other hand, I would've worried."
She nodded, somehow his words were calming. It wasn't enough to calm her completely but enough to keep her hope up. Maybe it hadn't been her bite, but at least they were connected and hopefully that would be all it took for him to make it.
Kate froze at the sudden sound of his heartbeat speeding up, her eyes reached the writer beside her and she saw his closed eyes move as he was most likely fighting to wake up. She didn't dare breathe, and could tell by the lack of other sound than the writer that her father was holding his breath as well.
