Tough Love

Chapter 22

Dedicated to live_yuh_life for making me an amazing, magnificent cover!  And thank you LindyWindy for the second in place cover.  It was hard to choose which one should’ve been the final cover! The book is getting more and more near the end, sadly! Sorry for ANY mistakes! This book seriously needs to go into a huge editing cycle once it's completed. Enjoy and don't forget to vote, comment, and fan!

PS - On the side is the song I listened to while writing the chapter, especially for the end... Listen to it if you'd like, it might put you in the mood for the chapter. The song is called Open Road (I Love Her) by Chris Brown

I was tackled to the floor by Holden. His own body shielded mine and I was still stunned, unable to process the previous few seconds. A little boy just got shot and died right before my eyes.

Holden was yelling orders and took a gun out from his back pocket. I could hear bullets fly inches away from my ear and my scream was somehow caught in my throat. Holden was shooting out, the gunshots toward us slowly coming to an end. But then a person dressed in a black cloak, face covered, was walking towards us. Her hand looked as if it was pale, but I knew that color skin anywhere. It was a sun kissed color of skin. It was Rose’s skin color. And behind the sheer black cloak that hid Rose’s face was her violet colored eyes.

As if in slow motion, Rose’s finger was on the gun. She was ready to kill me. I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for it to happen. Waiting for the gunshot to come at me, to leave me in a stinging and excruciating pain.

But it never came.

Holden shot her in the leg and she tumbled to the floor. He knew. Holden knew it was Rose. We watched her, stunned, as she staggered away and shot back to our own pack.

This all happened within seconds. Holden yanked me to my feet and we hid behind a desk as he was shooting to the intruders. “Here- take this.” He was handing me a gun.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t ever bring myself to shoot anyone. I wasn’t strong. I was weak. I couldn’t be a good Luna. All these thoughts jumbled through my head and tears coursed down my face. Holden kissed them away while placing the gun in the palm of my hand, closing my fingers around it.

“I need you to stay strong. You go with my body guard. He’ll take you to a safe place. I’ll see you soon.”  I looked over to his bodyguard who was shooting at the enemies, still looking back at us impatiently. “Emily, I… I love you.”

Before I had time to respond, Holden’s bodyguard said, “Alpha, I need to get her out of here. Now.”

I was pulled away from Holden by his bodyguard and we raced down the room and down a stairwell. There was a door we came upon that needed a card to enter, so the bodyguard scanned his card and we were soon enclosed into an elevator, up to sea level.

My hand couldn’t stop shaking. I was taken aware by the danger. But what about Holden? Was he already shot? Wounded?

He told me he loved me. And I loved him too. I was scared to admit it, to say it out loud… Because whenever someone got attached to me, they’d always, somehow, leave me one way or the other.

            That was a week ago. I had seen Holden the day after the battle. Holden had gotten spelled on by one of the witches from the Circle. She had cracked all the bones in Holden body agonizingly slow. It was like going through your first werewolf transformation again. Two of our men had died. My head bounced back to when Rose was going to shoot us. It would’ve been my fault if Holden or anyone got wounded from her. I was the one that saved her from the execution…