Control (Dark Romance)

Chapter 3

For those who like music, there's a scene in here that I wrote to First Date by Frad, it's best to play it when I say to. It's also now in the Control Playlist on Spotify.

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Hagen's P.O.V

I didn't think it was normal for my heart to be racing the way it was.

It wasn't as if anything exciting was going on, or anything equally terrifying. I was in a corner cafe with my sister, listening to her talk about her week, not on a battlefield fighting for my life or some shit.

But I might as well have been with the way my heart was charging in my chest as if it belonged to a thoroughbred that had just come off the tracks. 

"I just had a bad day I think," Josey continues, "I'm usually in better shape," 

"Mhm," I hum with a nod.

Maybe I'd just had too much coffee.

It is not the coffee - Zyair interjects before I even had a chance to enjoy that little lie.

Okay so maybe it wasn't the coffee, or how busy the cafe was, but something else entirely.

"And then I got on a unicorn and flew to the moon," 

"Is that so-" I stop myself as her words actually lock themselves in causing me to snap my head up, "wait, you did what?"

Josey smiles knowingly at me as she circles the straw inside her iced macchiato, "You're not listening. 

Shit.

"I'm sorry," I reply earnestly while I run my hands through my hair in a feeble attempt to get a grip on something since the rest of my life was stuck in a shit storm, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I know you have a lot on your mind," she replies with a shrug, "it's why I came down here, to get those things off your mind and help you relax, but maybe I'm not doing a very good job of that."

"No, you're not," I tease which makes gets me a playful glare from her, "but seriously, I should've been listening.

"Yeah, you should've, but you can't help but feel anxious."

I hear myself release a weak chuckle while I drop my gaze to the table's lining. Tracing the carved in design with my finger, I try to keep the pitiful doubt out of my voice as I ask "Is that what this is?" I risk a peek at her, "Anxiety?"

"I think so. I mean, you'll be spending your with the guy who tormented you for more than half of your life," Josey deadpans, her empathy not hard to hear despite the cold casing it's delivered in, "if you weren't anxious, I'd think you lost even more of the few brain cells you have left."

A real laugh leaves me as I feel our bond warm, tightening with the love and support she sends my way.

Josey was the only person I knew who seemed to understand my reservations about my mate.

It was probably because she'd been right there to witness every awful thing he'd done in my life to keep me to him, or maybe it was because she'd been the one to hold me on the nights I couldn't help but cry because of him, but Josey understood my reservations.

Everyone else liked to pull the mate card as if mates was the magic fix-it tool to every issue.

Not Josey. Josey didn't give a fuck about the importance of mates, she'd never really liked the concept of having no choice of who your other half would be, and so, she'd always been ready to listen to my side.