Wolf mate

Chapter 3

He'd hoped this was just another case, he'd prayed that Hannah Lorenz had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time or it had simply been someone targeting her because of her. But the second Lanie had called them down to the morgue in order to tell them their victim had been killed with a silver bullet, all his hopes were crashed under a big shoe. Beckett had teased him about the werewolf theory again, but her eyes had immediately picked up on the change in his body the second she laid her eyes on him, and her mouth immediately closed with a clench in her jaw. After that he could feel her eyes glancing to him more often than not, could feel the constant questions radiating from her body as he tried to act as normal as he could without freaking out. Did someone know about them? If they knew about Hannah, how long would it take for them to figure out he and his family were one of them too?

The boys didn't see his small fear, they teased him about how he wasn't theorizing about Hannah being a werewolf. He probably got better at hiding his feelings once they had started teasing anyway, it had been that first instant shock that had led Beckett to seeing through him. She'd bit the boys off, though, told them they had a case to solve and shouldn't be disrespecting the dead. The boys were sent off to try and find Hannah's parents while Beckett told Castle they would focus on the things they knew to try and build up a timeline. When Castle took a break in order to get them coffee he took the opportunity to send a text message to Marco, the phone which wouldn't be on the record in case Beckett or the boys would check it up. He wrote he had some new developments he needed to share, that it was urgent that they'd speak, and asked if they could meet up somewhere during the night. As he was done with the coffee he felt his phone vibrate and checked it to see the wolf had sent him an address and a time.

"Why a silver bullet? Why go through the trouble of making a bullet out of pure silver instead of just buying a normal one?" Beckett asked as he handed her the coffee, the wrinkle between her eyes as adorable as it had been the first time he witnessed it all those years ago.

Because silver hurt more. He shrugged his shoulders, tried to be as nonchalant as he could. "Maybe you're right, maybe she was a werewolf." Maybe if he indulged the idea, they would let him off the hook.

She gave him a look, her look. "Don't be ridiculous."

With quick thoughts he decided he could actually use this to his advantage, the killer was already crazy for killing anyway. "Okay, she isn't, but let's pretend the killer thought so. What if he got so delusional he would actually start killing people because he think they're werewolves?"

She hummed at that. "Maybe, but where would that leave him? You know any special place we could visit?"

He suddenly felt his heart pick up in speed. "Me? Why me?" What are you saying?

Rolling her eyes, she answered, "Aren't you usually the one with the weird places to go? You remember you took us to that weird place with stuff from 200 years ago?"

Right. "Uh-well-yeah," he struggled to find what words to say so he just closed his mouth for a few seconds, cleared his head. "I can't think of any," he said while shaking his head.

He could see she didn't truly believe him, could see how she kept searching his eyes for the secret she knew he was hiding. He knew he shouldn't look away but he couldn't help it, her gaze was hard on him and he couldn't stand the way it hurt seeing her so disbelieving.

"What aren't you telling me, Castle?"

Her hazels were practically begging him to tell her the truth, and god knew he wanted to, but just before he opened his mouth to tell her he found himself shrugging his shoulders.