Control (Dark Romance)

Chapter 31

Hagen's P.O.V

"Come on, Hagen! You're doing great!"

I lift my head up, ignoring the way the world tilts to the left as I try to find Apollos. It wasn't even that sunny out, but everything feels so bright to my squinting eyes that it takes me a moment to spot him. He's perched up in the heavens, at the top of the tree I was clinging to with all my strength.

"You can do it!" He shouts, smiling down at me as if this wasn't crazy.

When I started the day, the last thing I expected to do with my Sunday was climb a damn tree, but here I was, panting with blurring, way-too-bright vision at what was sadly only the midway point on this unnecessarily big as fuck pine tree.

"Yeah," I manage through my cotton mouth. I throw a thumbs up over my head and lean against the prickly bark. "Just... just catching my breath!"

More like trying not to die on the spot because, as it turned out, the wolf I'd always thought was the pack's most laid-back motherfucker was actually a big fat liar with a very well-hidden secret.

Apollos Amorenia had the strength of the Gods.

"You're almost there!" He shouts, and maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. It didn't matter. If I moved right now with the way my heart was palpitating, I'd fucking die. Apollos doesn't know that though, so he keeps cheering me on, but it all becomes background noise as I turn my head and look towards the Amorenia house.

My eyes snag on Nikola in an instant, as if I was made of steel and he was my magnet. He's sitting on one of the deck chairs of the outer patio and just the sight of him eases the tightness within my chest that I hadn't realised was even building.

It's just the bond, is what I try to tell myself as my heartbeat calms and my body relaxes with Nikola filling my attention, but it's not. I'd gotten used to the pull of the bond over the months, so used to it that I knew instinctively that this wasn't that. This was just... me.

Before that realisation can fry my mind, a figure invades the space beside Nik, leaning close. The rest of the world spills back into frame, reminding me that that figure was Jacob, and for a split second, the same crazy that had possessed me when Max was close to Nikola flickers to life, but I swat it away quickly. Jacob might be objectively adorable and literally the nicest warlock to ever walk the earth, but he was Nikola's best friend. That was it. But they were seated closely and there was a frown on Nikola's face that matched the tight bundle of something I'd been feeling since this morning.

Nik said everything was fine, but he wasn't acting himself, and it had nothing to do with the blowjob he'd given me. Before, he was distant, but then something happened and he'd become cagey, and now every time he looked at me, right when I thought maybe we were okay, this weird panic flooded his eyes.

It made my stomach queasy, and I was starting to feel itchy with the need to fix it, but Nikola had practically pawned me off to his dad the moment we'd gotten here. It was clear as shit that Apollos hadn't known we were coming, but before I could question Nikola, he'd retreated to their patio, and then people had started showing up.

We couldn't be far from one another, so I'd seen him with his first visitor, a lady I didn't recognise who'd grinned at me through the patio windows as if I were a pearl she'd found in a clam. Then, there was his mom, which fair enough, was his mom, but now Jacob was here and they were close and— now wrapping an arm around Nikola?

Something was wrong and it had nothing to do with jealousy. Something was wrong with my mate. I knew it like I knew the sky was blue. Fuck it— I felt it. In my fucking bones. And all I wanted to do was help, but it seemed like Nik planned to talk to everybody else before he spoke to me.