The Demon Who Fed on a Shark by Scarlet Hyacinth

incubus. He’s
    different. How can we even be sure things work the same with them?”
    Alexis had to force himself to continue breathing evenly. “Alexis
    was Morgan’s choice,” Layton said, “and I trust my brother to know
    what’s best for him.”
    Malcolm didn’t speak again. Instead, Alexis heard footsteps, and
    the door opened and closed as the older man left the room. Moments
    later, another person came in. “Hi, Dad,” Layton murmured. Skylar,
    then.
    “How is he?” Skylar inquired softly.
    “Sleeping,” Layton answered. “Morgan?”
    Skylar sighed. “He’s inconsolable. Byron had to order him to eat.”
    Pain and bitter guilt assaulted Alexis at the knowledge that he’d
    hurt his lover. His own hopes and selfish desires had led him to this.
    He should have known he could never give Morgan what the other
    man needed.
    “Have you come any closer to figuring out why Alexis got sick?”
    Layton inquired.
    For a few moments, Skylar didn’t answer. When he did speak, his
    voice sounded defeated. “Oh, Layton. I’ve never seen something like
    this, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time with the agency, it is that always, always, a person responds positively to being
    claimed by his or her mate, at least physically. It is the difference between biting your other half and any other person, at least for
    species who used the bite as the solidifying element.”
    “So…You think Alexis isn’t really Morgan’s mate? But Morgan
    is so certain of it…”
    “I know he is,” Skylar replied. “That’s why it hurts so much. I
    don’t want to doubt Alexis again. We already did, once, and we all
    know how that turned out.”
    “But there’s no other explanation, is there?”
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    Scarlet Hyacinth
    They were talking about deception, Alexis deceiving Morgan into
    believing in a false bond. Everything inside Alexis screamed at the
    injustice. He loved Morgan. He truly did. Yes, he was afraid. Yes, he might have fucked up. But he would never, ever, take advantage of
    Morgan like that.
    But of course, Morgan’s family would never believe him. They
    were more likely to judge him after their own standards after the
    smallest slight, even if they did have good intentions. What did that say of him?
    Then again, how did he know what they were saying wasn’t the
    absolute truth? How did he know he hadn’t accidentally fallen into the habits of his kind and inadvertently seduced Morgan, going beyond
    any limits he should have gone? It wasn’t impossible, not for an
    incubus, to induce ideas or affections that felt true for the person
    experiencing them, but were, in fact, empty and fake.
    The idea chilled him to the bone. He wondered if that was the
    reason why Morgan seemed unaffected by the scar on Alexis’s face.
    Naturally, Alexis hadn’t wanted Morgan to leave him, and if Morgan
    was under his unconscious control, the shark would probably pay no
    attention whatsoever to Alexis’s disfigurement.
    It was all starting to make sense now. Alexis suppressed a sob of
    self-loathing. He should have listened earlier. He should have gone
    with his parents when they’d told him to come home. He hadn’t, and
    now, he was deeply in love with a person who only thought he shared
    Alexis’s feelings.
    Alexis couldn’t allow this to continue. He would destroy
    Morgan’s life more than he already had. If he removed himself from
    Morgan’s presence, the spell would slowly fade, and Morgan would
    find someone new, his true mate, the person he’d wrongfully
    considered Alexis to be.
    Tears threatened to fall, but Alexis angrily pushed them back. He
    couldn’t allow Skylar and Layton to figure out he was awake. He
    needed to come up with a plan to get out of here. It wouldn’t be easy

    The Demon Who Fed on a Shark
    65
    since the Cunningham complex was impenetrable. There were so
    many alarms and security systems here that even Alexis’s own
    parents had never bothered to install. How could he leave