Controlling Novels & Stories

She commands as I try to stop her from going down on me. I let her be, while I anticipate what pleasurable torture she would inflict on me. Very slowly we make love while Zayn's pillow talk becomes the rythme to which our love making dances.

She identified weak points, tightened boundaries, and removed unnecessary risk. Controlled damage was still damage. But it was manageable. And Adrian had never lost control of anything she was paying attention to.

-ADRIAN POV- I've built my career on the principle that control is everything. It's the only thing that separates the people who succeed from the people who get swept away by circumstance and emotion. Control is knowing exactly what will happen before it happens. Control is building systems that work regardless of external chaos. Control is keeping the world at arm's length so nothing can touch what I've carefully constructed. And I'm very, very good at control. Which is why the assignment Marcus just handed me is simultaneously the most strategic opportunity of my career and the most genuinely irritating thing that's happened to me in months.

Control, C. Control V. That has been my life for about 10 years. Copying and pasting the works of great men and women. Call me scum, loser, or even fraud. It doesn't matter to me. Why try to compete with genius when it's staring at you in the face. Don't you care about getting caught? What about plagiarism laws?

Just there. “Kale.” My name on his mouth again. Low. Rough. “What?” “Stop fighting me.” “Or what?” “Or I’m going to stop being careful.” That did it. The anger in me snapped. Not into fear. Into something hotter. Messier. “Fine,” I said. “Stop being careful.” The second I said it, his control cracked. He let go of one wrist and his hand slid to my jaw. Thumb brushing over my cheekbone like he was checking if I was real. His eyes were dark. Not with anger anymore. With something else. Something I’d been pretending not to see for months.

He chose not to stop it and waited. A few minutes later, Adrian's eyes lit up. He discovered that he could control Mackay’s body. However, he was still unfamiliar with this power, and it took him quite a while to get Mackay's body to stand. This form of control required heavy multitasking. A person's brain could seamlessly control their body largely due to years of muscle memory and inherent familiarity and coordination with oneself. Therefore, achieving perfect control over someone else in a short time was difficult, and Adrian decided not to rush the process. If he could master controlling Mackay, it would be like having an extremely useful counter-espionage

Partly because some things belong to the people who lived them. What I will say is this: he was steady where I was controlled, and the difference between those two things turned out to matter more than I’d known it could. Control is a choice you renew constantly. It is a discipline and a distance held simultaneously, and I had been good at it for so long that I had stopped noticing the effort it took. I noticed when I stopped. The relief of it was something I hadn’t anticipated.

Darius looked at him. “No.” Immediate. “Not yet,” he added. “Why?” Darius’s tone remained even. “Because he’s the only thing keeping her from breaking completely.” That mattered more than anything else. “If we remove him too early,” Darius continued, “we lose control of the situation.” The man understood. “Then we monitor both.” “Exactly.” Darius stepped back slightly, his focus sharpening. “Everything from this point forward is controlled movement,” he said. “No rushing. No guessing.”

Arden crossed his arms. “Which makes it unpredictable.” “Yes.” Kane didn’t look away from the presence. “And dangerous.” The presence didn’t react to that. Or maybe— It did. Just not in a way we could see. “Selene,” Dominic said, “we need to restrict it.” “I know.” “But how?” Cassius asked. “You can’t just tell it to stop deciding.” “No,” I said. “But we can limit where those decisions apply.” Kane nodded. “Scope control.”

"But it's your world. You created it! You can control the world, the land and use it against Zara even if you can't control her directly.” "I can't do anything with the land! Or the world! I can't directly control the world! The world is just there, fixed and there's nothing I can do. There are no control stones for worlds. I only control the people in it and monitor their decisions and change their mind when needed, and also control their actions when needed.”. “Then control some powerful men. Make them defeat her. Control their actions!”.