Free Claimed (Book Four of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel by Hazel Hunter

 
    “There’s smoke coming up from something that’s slightly to the west of us. Is it possible that there’s an old mountaineer or hermit in these parts?”
    Kieran shook his head.
    “No, this area of the mountains is typically a little too dangerous for people to simply want to live here. We should definitely have a peek. Here, while you’re down, feed your face.”
    He tossed a protein bar at Piers, who caught it. Kieran turned to Hailey.
    “Change up, and have some food as well. After that, you can join Dayton in the sky.”
    It almost hurt to leave her wolf form, to feel her sharp senses being exchanged for senses that were not half so fine. She sighed. At least in her human form, she could touch Piers when he leaped down from the tree.  
    After she finished her protein bar, she took Piers’s arm, pulling his golden energy from him and trying to make it more than it was, as she had done with Kieran. He definitely looked startled, but then he shook his head, as if not quite certain what he had felt.  
    Hailey took a deep breath and concentrated. She wished for a moment that she could have changed into an owl, as she knew her own familiar’s body well. However, a man who lived at the first coven she had lived at had turned into an eagle. Once she had asked him what it was like. He fixed her with an eye that was far keener than a human’s.
    “It’s like being sharpened,” he said at last. “It’s like all of your focus, all of your will and your power is focused in your eyes. You can see farther than any other animal in the world. You can see as clearly under water as you can in dry air. It’s like being a king.”
    She focused on his words, and she imagined what it would be like to soar into the air on wings that were broad and strong. She imagined what it would be like to have heavy talons that could bring down small deer. She barely noticed when she started shrinking and twisting.  
    When Hailey opened her eyes, she almost cried out. The forest that they had been walking through had been beautiful in its own right, but now it was lit from within, showing her a panoply of gem-like colors all in a vivid degree of sharpness that she had never imagined existed. Her sense of smell was not too different from what she had as a human, but it palled in comparison to what her eyes could see.
    Piers grinned down at her.
    “All right, darling, ready to fly?”
    “Be careful.” Kieran’s voice was sharp. “If you get tired, come down at once.”
    Hailey barely listened to either of them as she pumped her wings twice, hard. Then with a loud cry, she launched herself from the ground. It was clumsier than she thought it would be. Her first flaps were slow and lumbering, but as she put more distance between herself and the ground, she felt herself grow lighter and lighter. Soon she was hundreds of feet above where Kieran stood. Piers shot up next to her, nudging her slightly as he rose. She glanced up to see a sharp, proud grin on his face.
    “Come on, Hailey, try and keep up,” he shouted, and with an inward grin, she shot after him.
    Quickly, they fell into a search pattern that would maximize their range. They flew from side to side, crossing paths close to where Kieran still walked. Using him as a center, they could cover a great deal of ground.
    She couldn’t get over how much she could see. If she cared to look, every rock and every rustle in the branches was obvious to her. She did quickly realize that the instincts of the eagle were more powerful than those of the wolf, however. More than once, she stopped herself from going into a dive. Seeing a fish in a stream or a rabbit in a bare patch of land made her talons itch.  
    More than an hour later, her sharp eyes caught sight of a strange shape in a clearing in her path. Letting out a loud scream, she spiraled over the spot, making sure that Piers saw her go down. When she landed, she returned to her human form, Piers lighting down beside her.
    “Is