Holding Back Novels & Stories

"He brought me here in expectance that you will welcome me with open arms but instead, what did you do? you decide to create a scene while calling me names. yes, not everyone is as popular and influential as the Bills but that certainly doesn't give you the right to talk down on anyone. yes! you are fortunate. so what? I can be in a better position tomorrow." "Just because no one knows tomorrow does not mean I will come begging for your help. Stop being so delusional." "No, I am not wishing for your downfall, but that doesn't mean that I will remain in one position forever."

Harmony I was trying to prevent myself from shaking while I was staring at my laptop. I don’t know what to feel about a post on Friendbook related to me. While I was trying to calm down, I continued to stare at a photo posted with a mocking caption. It was me, standing on a stage while in the midst of holding back my tears. The caption says, "Wow, look at your dumb rich girl stuttering through a debate. Is that all you can do? "

Jorgie asked, "Christine, are you listening? Why don't you come back here? Hansen is refusing to go to the hospital, but I can't just keep letting him bleed like this." "Jorgie," I said in my usual gentle voice. "Yes, yes, I'm listening, Christine," Jorgie responded eagerly, raising his eyebrows at Hansen.

" It is the bond …you can't hold out forever, '' Shiva said to me. I took a step back and that was a bad mistake , because he let out animalistic growls at me and it shook me to my core and stopped me in my tracks . "LET ME IN" WHAT THE F***! Did his wolf just speak to me?

The man looked at the woman, pretending to be dead all the way, without a few minutes of sobriety. Getting ready to go home, how eager, how longing. The whole healthy person can be seen at a glance. A little sign of motion sickness no longer exists. The nephew clings to the woman like the super glue. She is not strong enough to hug, the little boy just needs to hold her hand, satisfied enough. On his back, he carried a bear backpack, stuffed a few miscellaneous things, and walked like a triumphant general.

Because that version of him— The one who laughed freely. The one who didn’t hesitate. The one who chose Kieran— That version felt so far away. And yet— So close. Eli turned onto his side slowly. “…Why does it feel like I’m the one holding myself back…” Not Kieran. Not the past. Him. Like there was something inside him— Still resisting. Still refusing to let go. Even when everything else— Was starting to align. He closed his eyes slowly. And this time—

She was holding herself back. Not from me specifically — or not only from me. From something. From whatever impulse the situation was producing in her, the response that her stripped and diminished position was generating in a woman who had spent twenty years responding to every threat with the most effective available tool and had just been deprived of most of her tools. She was holding herself back from acting. I could see it. The internal restraint, visible at the surface in the set of her jaw and the precise, deliberate quality of her stillness and the way her hands, at her sides, were not moving.

My wolf stirred faintly, her presence a comforting warmth in the back of my mind. You’re holding back, she said, her voice soft but insistent. I’m trying, I thought back, frustration tightening my grip on the edges of the table. It’s not like shifting. It’s… different. You’re afraid, she countered. Afraid of what you might find if you lean in too far.

But he didn’t say it. Of course, he didn’t. That was the problem. And I hated how much it got to me. I pulled my hand away slightly, just enough to break the contact. The absence of it made me feel hollow in a way I didn’t expect. But I didn’t step back. I stayed right there. “You’re holding back,” I said quietly. “Yes,” he replied. “Why?” “Because I have to.” “That’s not a reason.” “It is to me.” “That’s not enough for me.”

The kind that doesn’t run. The kind that fights back.