Chapter 4

Castle went home, and with amazing calm, took his time choosing a few things to take with him. He didn't want to arrive too early. He told his mother where he was going but let Alexis think he was just going to check on his property to be sure nothing looked wrong there and to check in with Sheriff Barton's office. He told her she could invite friends to go with them again as soon as he was certain it was safe, and Alexis seemed to be satisfied with that. Then he left, giving her a big dad hug and promising her a dad/daughter dinner date after he got home on Sunday afternoon.

After programming the Garmin with the address for the cabin, he was on the road leaving the city; and the drive was pleasant once he wasn't bound up in the city traffic. The scenery was nice; the trees were changing colors. The traffic wasn't bad, and other drivers seemed to have better sense, and for the most part, better manners than those in New York City. Except for being nervous about Kate's reaction to his presence in her personal space, the trip was rather relaxing.

Having decided to wait until at least dusk, and not wanting to run into Kate before he intended, he stopped for dinner in a small town about thirty miles from the Becketts' property. After taking his time to enjoy a surprisingly good meal at a roadside diner, a look at his watch told him that dusk was closer than he thought. He took care of his bill, left a good tip for the fiftyish woman who had been an excellent server, and left a note and a tip for the 'chef'…something he was almost certain the man in the diner had never been called, let alone tipped for…and left smiling at the expression of pleasure on the face of the man he could see through the serving window.

"Now for the iffy part of the day," he muttered to himself as he drove. "Please, please don't be upset, Kate," he said to whatever part of the universe could hear him and possibly help. When his technology guided him safely to the narrow drive that went through a wooded space and, he assumed, up to the cabin, he was immediately looking for a good entrance into the woods and a place to park his car and leave it.

He saw a good place to pull off, parked, and found the flashlight he kept in the glove box. After walking far enough into the trees that he didn't expect to be seen, he identified a place he could easily find again to leave his clothes; and then, joints, muscles, and body shapes undergoing massive changes, he shifted into his wolf form and struck out on his mission. Based on his own activity, he guessed that Kate would be outside in the latter part of dusk, so he walked carefully through the woods searching for a sound or a scent that would lead him to her.

xxxxx

Kate had spent most of the day sitting and reading in the sunlight near the lake and walking for a couple of miles around the water's edge. The water was too cold to wade in the small waves, but a light jacket was all she needed to be comfortable walking around the shoreline in the mid-day sunshine. Then she went back to the cabin and took a nap to make up for the sleep she would miss overnight when she would be spending a lot of time in the woods. When twilight had settled into almost dark, she walked out of the cabin and into the woods, found the place she always left her clothes, and shifted to her other form, ready for a good jaunt through the trees. The new form didn't allow human speech but didn't preclude the human mind and sensibilities. It did, however, heighten all the senses; and something felt different. It didn't quite feel dangerous, but it was something out of the ordinary and made her edgy in a place where she was usually very comfortable. She would test the area slowly and carefully before feeling that she could let go and enjoy her freedom.

Castle spotted her when she cautiously walked into a wide clearing and sniffed the air. She was aware of him and he didn't want to frighten her, so he walked slowly to the edge of the clearing and simply stood there, allowing her to adjust to the idea that she was sharing her space that night.

She saw him and instinctively wanted to challenge him; but he was a large wolf, so she moved closer to the shrub sized undergrowth and the trees on the other side of the clearing to give herself time to evaluate the situation. There was something vaguely familiar in the scent, but it didn't belong there in her woods. The other wolf trotted in her direction, stopped just past the halfway point in the clearing, and sat down, assuming a non-threatening posture. Then she could see him better…a blue-eyed wolf and she identified the hint of scent that didn't belong there…Castle.

She walked to him making little whimpery sounds of greeting and rubbed her muzzle against his, and he stood and returned the gesture. Then she put her paws out toward him and lowered the front of her body, inviting something playful. She moved back and forth a few times and then ran, and he chased. There were little bouts of challenging then chasing again and stopping to nuzzle faces. They finally just ran…in and out of the trees, through clearings and back through the trees until they wore themselves out. They stopped and stretched out on the grass with their sides pressed against one another, their muzzles resting close together on their extended paws, and slept for a little while. In all their playing and chasing, he had found where Kate had left her clothes; so he eased away while she slept, picked the folded items up with his teeth, and dropped them beside her paws before he nuzzled her awake. Then he trotted off through the trees to find his own, returning in the form she was more accustomed to…still buttoning his shirt.

She had shifted back and was dressed as well. "Why are you in my woods?" she asked. "And how did you find me?"

"I'm here because I wanted you to know. We needed to get past the fear that we might be wrong." After a sigh, he told her, "I went to see your dad, and he told me where you were. I like him, and I think he liked me."

"You went to see my dad? And he knew you're…"

"Apparently all it took was a handshake and he knew," Castle answered with a little shudder. "We should go back to the cabin and talk there. It's colder out here dressed like this."

"Come on. It's this way."

He put his arm around her and said, "A little body heat sharing couldn't hurt."

She wrapped an arm around his waist and voiced her agreement.

"Yours is probably fancier, but this is our cabin, and I like it," she said as they entered it.

"I like it, too. It's nice."

"Would you like some hot chocolate? I only have the powdered kind, but I doctor it well."

"That sounds great."

"I'll get it started and you can tell me how you managed to meet my father."

"Fair enough. What can I do to help?"

Sitting close together under a blanket on the sofa, they drank their doctored hot chocolate and Castle told her about the visit with her father. She eventually got to the dreaded question about how he knew where to find him, and Castle had to admit to getting it from her phone."

"My phone? When? I'm not careless with it."

"At the coffee shop when you went to the restroom. I grabbed it before it closed. I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry." When one Beckett brow went up, he told her, "It got us past the fear of saying too much. And I met somebody else like me. It's the first time that's happened. Tonight was phenomenal, Kate. I've never had anyone to share that with before. I was always the only one. Thank you for not being angry with me."

She cupped his cheek with one hand and said softly, "I'm sorry you've had to experience all that alone, but you don't need to be alone anymore."

"When you said you're a one and done kind of girl, it's because…"

"Yeah. Because wolves mate for life."

"I'm falling in love," he admitted.

"Me, too."

He put his mug on the table, then took hers and did the same, and kissed her gently, long and slow. When they broke apart, he said, "I've promised not to take advantage, and I keep my promises; but could we sleep somewhere together tonight…just sleep. I promised Alexis I'd be back to take her out to dinner tonight, and I don't want to fall asleep at the wheel. That little nap in the woods was really nice, but not quite enough. I just want to be close to you, Kate, the way we were in the woods…and kiss you goodnight…maybe a few times. Do you feel it, too?"

She just nodded, took his hand, and led him to her room. They woke the next morning well after the sun was up and shared a few more kisses before making breakfast together. Kate provided an introduction to the lake and a tour of the rest of the cabin before Castle had to leave.

"I'll miss you until tomorrow," he told her before he left.

"I'll miss you, too. Tomorrow we'll be back at work, though. It's probably going to be a long day."

"Maybe tomorrow will be when we get a breakthrough. We're due for one on this case…these cases."

Arms around one another, she walked with him to where he had left his car. "Next time, just drive up and park it here in front of the cabin."

"Next time?" he asked with a smile.

"Yep. Unless you didn't enjoy this as much as I did." Then she smiled shyly. "The only male wolf I've met is my father. Not the same."

"Next time, then," he answered as they reached his car. He kissed her once more before he left, both of them smiling.

Castle had a nice dad/daughter date with Alexis that evening, and Kate had an enlightening visit with her father on her way home.

xxxxx

Monday morning, the team at work had a sense of anticipation, hoping that Steve Scanlon's records would provide something productive; and shortly after noon, he called, telling them where they could pick up copies. He said that he had the records sent to him via email. "I have a meeting this afternoon, and I can't miss it; but I'll look for the name after it's over. Ryan and Esposito were already out to have the warrant signed to allow legal access, so they picked up the copies and returned to the precinct.

The team went right to work, starting with the clients of the two men who were murdered in 2007. About ten minutes in, Castle took one of the pages back for a second look. "There's a name here Harrison Douglas Oberon."

"Oberon? Wasn't that the name of the wolf guy?" Ryan asked.

Beckett was immediately online looking for a driver's license for Harrison Douglas Oberon. "The last one expired in 2008, and there isn't a newer one." She told them.

"The jacket...he was probably military," Ryan answered. Maybe there's something there."

Nearly simultaneously, Castle asked, "Was he a sergeant?" and Esposito stated confidently, "He was a sergeant."

"Three stripes on the upper arm," Beckett answered. "That fits the story, doesn't it Castle?" A further look revealed an obituary in that name. "And we have an obituary for Sergeant Harrison Douglas Oberon on March 14, 2007…survived only by a brother, Steven Jacob Oberon and a cousin, not the same surname, who lives in Wisconsin. I'll call Hayden and get Oberon's full name. "

"Hayden released the other Oberon, though, and that one doesn't exactly describe the relative Scanlon mentioned, the one who was well-dressed and well-spoken. This guy looked like he was barely holding himself together," Esposito observed.

"But he did say it was his brother's jacket, and that his brother died a couple of years ago," Ryan answered.

"So now we're probably looking for a homeless guy who's in the wind at the moment," Beckett agreed. "I think we're on the right track, but let's wait until we talk to Scanlon after his meeting before we officially launch a hunt for this guy. We need to be sure it's the right man before we make some homeless guy's life harder than it already is."

"Might as well. Finding him tomorrow morning isn't going to be any less of a problem than it would be right now," Ryan said with a sigh. "We still have eyes on Ellen Moore, right?"

"Yeah, we do," Beckett answered. Then she called Scanlon's office and left a message with his assistant asking him to call her ASAP whether he's had time to look through the records or not.

When he called near shift end that afternoon, he confirmed that was the correct name for the account and that the relative was indeed well-dressed and well-spoken. "I just happened to see the confrontation on the way back from a meeting with the board that day. He gave those two rogue financial planners a well thought out and scathingly honest picture of what they had done to his family member, said he hoped the same thing would happen to their finances, then turned and left. We never saw him again. Do you think he murdered them?"

"We don't know. The man you described as a relative doesn't fit the picture of the man we suspect, but it's been two years. Stranger things have happened. We really appreciate your cooperation, Mr. Scanlon."

"Will you let me know if or when you find something? It stays in my mind…the murders and what his advisors did to that young soldier's future. It might help to have some answers and closure."

"I'll let you know," Beckett promised before closing the call.

"You don't usually promise that to non-related parties," Esposito said. "Why this one?"

"Maybe because of all the CEO types we've had to deal with in this job. It's nice to see one who isn't a callous, if-they-don't-generate-money-I-couldn't-care-less-about-them type. I'm sure the kind ones exist out there somewhere, but this job doesn't generally pull them into our sights." Taking a deep breath, she told the boys, "Go home and relax. We'll tackle the rest of this tomorrow morning."

"Are we done, too?" Castle asked.

"I have a couple of things to do before I leave. Do you need to go?"

"Alexis is studying with friends again. I don't know where she gets the consistency it takes to study like that. Maybe my anonymous father? But if it came from my mother's side, it must have been the generation before her; and it certainly didn't come from either of her parents. Anyway, she won't be home until nine. I told Mother I was hoping to spend some time with you before then."

"I'd like that. I can be done here in about twenty minutes."

"I'll get us coffee."

She called Hayden to verify Wolf-guy Oberon's full name, and it matched the name in the obituary. She gave him a quick up-date of what they had just found and explained they were going to look into him further to be sure he was the right Oberon and initiate a search the next morning if the ID was clear. We still have a unit at Ellen Moore's building with instructions to look for him specifically. We'll track down the cousin in Wisconsin, too…see if he can tell us anything, but if anybody in your precinct sees Oberon, please have them hold him until we can talk to him."

"Will do. Sorry he's gone, but there wasn't a good reason to hold him then."

"None of us saw this coming, Hayden. We would probably have done the same thing."

Castle came back with coffee, looking around to be sure no one would hear, and asked quietly, "How do you feel about shifting and exploring The Ramble tonight? Oberon said he stays there sometimes. I know it like the back of my hand. That and The North Woods were the only places I could go when I was a teenager, and I still go once in a while. It wouldn't be as much fun as Saturday was, but it might be productive."

"You're sure we could get away with it?"

"I'm sure."

"It was you who sent Oberon flying out of the woods last week, wasn't it?" she asked, looking amused.

"I needed to give everybody a reasonable excuse to explain being in the woods, but I went in because I heard something. I thought if it had anything to do with the murder, I could flush him out so they'd know somebody was there." With a satisfied little grin, he added, "I growled quietly so he was the only one who heard."

"Well, I'm glad you did. It looks like we needed to know about him. You may have stopped a serial killer."

"So tonight? Probably after Alexis is asleep?"

"If we don't find him, we can at least enjoy the woods," she agreed. "What now?"

"Dinner with your ruggedly handsome writer?"

"My ruggedly handsome writer?"

"Yeah. I'll admit it."

"Dinner then."

"Nicer than Remy's but not where photographers want to hang out?" he asked as she closed down the computer and picked up her purse.

"Sounds perfect," she answered, and he helped her with her jacket.

"Dinner and maybe your place to talk before I go home? I promised I wouldn't take advantage, and I won't, but some kissing would be nice, too."

She smiled and answered flirtatiously, "Feed me first."

AN: I guess you've figured out by now that this is a Halloween story that was posted a little late. It's so far out of my comfort zone that I had to give myself a good, stiff talking to before I posted the first chapter. Not sure if it turned out to be Halloween, love among wolves, or (most likely) something in between, but it was fun looking at wolf habits and making up some of my own rules about werewolves. There will be one more chapter and a short epilogue. Thanks for reading.