Claimed (Book Four of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel Read Online Free

For a moment, it was like she had ripped him open. She could see the shock and the hurt on his face. She could no longer believe that their parting was pain only for her. There was grief in him as well. He covered it up again quickly, but she could never deny that she had seen it.
    “Rightly so. My apologies.”  
    For a moment, he couldn’t even look at her. When he spoke again, there was a deadness to his voice.
    “Hailey, I am on a mission for the Magus Corps. At the moment, the scope of the mission is unknown, but my commandant believes, and I agree with him, that this is going to be more than what we usually deal with.”
    “I fail to see how that is an issue for anyone here,” Piers said icily.
    Kieran ignored him.
    “What this means is that I need you to come with me. You have shown yourself fully capable and fully in use of powers that are commanded by no one in the Magus Corps.”
    “The Magus Corps has no authority at the Castle,” snapped Piers. “There is absolutely nothing that you can do to take Hailey out of here, nothing that you can do to drag her out against her will.”  
    Kieran turned to Piers. He looked almost relieved to be talking to the coven master instead of to Hailey.
    “What you say and want means very little to me, Dayton. I am here on a mission, and I owe my loyalty to a higher power than you.”  
    Piers’s eyes narrowed.
    “How fascinating. What you need to understand, Major, is that I owe my loyalty to Hailey. Does that make any sense to you at all? Do you understand what that means? That means that it is my life’s work keeping her and the other members of my coven safe. That goes far beyond your mandate and far deeper.”
    Kieran’s face was split in a snarl. At that moment, he looked more like Cavanaugh than Hailey would have thought possible.
    “My business here is not with you–”
    “Stop it!”
    Hailey’s voice echoed across the practice yard. She could hear the way the sound reverberated through the thin mountain air.  
    Both men froze, staring at her. She was nearly trembling with rage and with emotion.  
    “I need to understand this very clearly,” she said at last. It occurred to her that her voice was strung as tight as piano wire.  
    “I will of course answer any questions that I can,” Kieran said. His voice was soft and subdued, as if she were a wild animal that he did not want to harm or startle.
    “You came here to recruit me for a mission that the Magus Corps thinks is dangerous. Is that correct?”
    “It is.”  
    “You came here because…someone decided that I was the best tool to use for the job. Who was that?” Kieran’s pause was long enough that her nerves frayed. “You need to tell me, Kieran,” she said, her voice growing louder. “I need to know if it was your commandant or…or Stephan or you that decided that I had the right skill set to be brought in for whatever it is that you are planning.”  
    “It was my commandant,” Kieran said at last. “Hailey, you must believe me. When I submitted my report on the mission that…on the mission, I related what we accomplished together. I had no idea that it would be used to count you among the resources that the Magus Corps commands.”
    Hailey flinched. There had been a part of her that hoped, that prayed, that Kieran had used this opportunity to come see her. She wanted him to want her the way he had, the way that she still wanted him. That hope died a hard death in her heart. She struggled to keep her voice level.  
    “This mission. What is happening?”
    “Over the last seven months, we have lost nearly as many Magus Corps officers. None of them were in situations that we consider normal, and we were able to recover none of the bodies. This has taken place in the Alps, mountainous cold territory that makes me a good fit for the mission. This region has long been known for its Templar activity, something that makes many of the Magus Corps nervous. We have considered sending