All Chapters of The Sentinel's Vow: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Anna By midday, the mountain storm had settled into a quiet, heavy snow, wrapping the cabin in a deceptive peace. The heat had returned to the floor vents, but the ambient warmth did nothing to thaw the sudden, sharp tension that returned with the daylight. Klaus was no longer on the rug beside me. He was standing at the heavy oak table near the window, dressed back in his dark tactical gear, his eyes fixed on a rugged satellite laptop plugged into a portable encrypted server. The soft, blue light from the monitor illuminated the harsh, razor sharp angles of his jaw. The gentleness from last night, the heavy, desperate press of his mouth against mine, had been carefully packed away beneath his iron composure. I stood near the kitchen counter, wrapping my hands around a warm mug of black coffee, watching the steady, hypnotic pulse of his fingers over the mechanical keyboard. "You're doing it again," I said softly, my voice breaki

Anna The air in the bedroom was warm, thick with the scent of spent sweat, cedar, and raw, undeniable possession. I lay tucked against Klaus’s massive frame, my head resting on his chest, listening to the heavy, steady thud of his heart beneath my ear. One of his broad, scarred arms was wrapped tight around my waist, his long fingers resting possessively against the curve of my hip, anchoring me to him as if he expected the dark to swallow me whole the moment he let go. For the first time since the night in the gallery, the suffocating terror in my chest was gone. The contract was dead. The cold, unyielding security specialist who spoke in single-word commands had vanished, replaced by the man who had driven himself into me until I screamed his name into the quiet cabin. I traced a slow, delicate line over the thick muscle of his chest, feeling the subtle, involuntary twitch in his ribs at my touch. "You're thinking again," I whispered, lifting my head to look at his sharp pr

Klaus The moment her small body disappeared into the dark shaft, I let out a slow, long exhale, dragging the freezing air deep into my lungs. The wall came down. The gentle, burning man who had held her in his arms died, leaving behind only the machine built by Project Crimson. I stepped out of the narrow cave entrance, stepping onto the exposed, snow slicked stone ledge overlooking the ravine. The wind howled through the gorge, whipping my dark hair across my forehead as I stood tall against the white storm. Fifty yards up the trail, three dark figures broke through the dense pine cover. When they saw me standing alone in the open on the ledge, they froze, raising their short barreled rifles in unison. The man in the center stepped forward. He wore a heavy dark coat over his tactical gear, his head covered by a thick hood, but beneath the fabric, the lower half of his face was covered by a molded silver metal mask, scarred, pitted, and gleaming in the faint moonlight. Vi

Anna The secondary vehicle was a blacked out, heavily armored pickup truck hidden beneath a camouflaged tarp in a disused ranger station two hundred yards down the valley floor. Klaus didn't let me drive, despite the blood soaking through the makeshift bandage I had bound around his left thigh. He sat in the driver's seat like a statue carved from dark granite, his broad hands locked onto the steering wheel at ten and two, his dark hazel eyes fixed on the narrow, snow-slicked dirt road winding down toward the state highway. The heater in the cab roared, slowly melting the frost on our clothes and filling the small space with the scent of wet leather, copper, and warm cedar. I sat close to him, my left hand resting flat on his right thigh, feeling the dense, corded muscle twitch under my palm every time he shifted gears. Every few minutes, I looked over at his profile, the dried blood along his jawline, the dark stubble, the sharp, relentless focus in his eyes. "Where are we c

KlausI lost my mind the moment she cried out.I didn't care about the bullet wound in my thigh. I didn't care about the rain outside, the motel bill, or the satellite terminal sitting unopened in my tactical bag. All I cared about was the small, fierce woman shivering on top of me, her body slick, warm, and yielding to my touch.I sat up abruptly, taking her with me, keeping her straddled over my lap.Anna cried out in delight, her arms wrapping around my neck, her dark eyes sparkling with an intoxicating mixture of surrender and wild desire as I grabbed the collar of her shirt and yanked it down, popping the buttons off the fabric in a single, rough pull.The shirt fell away, leaving her sitting before me in her dark lace bra, her pale skin glowing in the dim, gray morning light. Her high, round breasts rose and fell with her frantic breathing, the dark peaks hardened against the lace, begging for my mouth."You are a sin, Anna Mandell," I growled, my broad hands cupping her breasts