Zurlo, Michele - Riley [Daughters of Circe 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Michele Zurlo Page B

sofa-sleeper. When she had run from her life the first time, she had packed everything into a compact car and hauled a trailer that held her big things. The trailer had been stolen the first night she splurged on a hotel.
    Calling her father for money was out of the question. After the way he’d treated Torrey, she could no longer stand to look at him. Shade had offered money time and again, but she insisted on making her own way.
    Every time she saw or spoke to Torrey, her sister asked Riley to come live with them. She would be with family, and she would be able to see her nieces any time she wanted. Shade even built a guest house with the expectation that Riley would live there.
    Pack mentality had taken over her sister’s way of thinking. Riley understood Torrey’s instinctual need to keep her family and loved ones close. She couldn’t protect Riley from several thousand miles away.
    For her part, Riley loved her sister. She loved visiting and talking on the phone. However, being around wolves for too long gave her the creeps. For almost two weeks, she had lived in the midst of a huge pack. Every time Soren had taken her out of the house, even for a simple walk, hostile stares had penetrated the layers of fall clothing and left her chilled.
    Shade had explained that wolves had a distinct dislike of humans and witches. Then Soren, the one man she trusted, the one man she thought she loved, had tried to sacrifice her sister.
    And now he was gone. He’d left two days ago at breakfast, and he hadn’t returned. She worried that he’d done something drastic to stop the demons that tormented him so mercilessly. She worried that he wouldn’t come back. She worried that he would.
    They needed him for this ritual. His energy would help fuel the transformation. But more than that, Riley felt a piece of her heart shriveling to nothing. The pain of his absence hurt. She stared out the front window, not really seeing the neat row of houses across the street or the way her neighbor, Cal, tugged at his dog’s leash to keep him out of a flower bed.
    “He’ll be back.” Teigh’s strong hands engulfed her shoulders and moved down her back. He had expert massage technique, and she didn’t want to stop him.
    “Or he’ll stay away until it’s too late, just to keep me safe.” Riley didn’t doubt her place at the top of Soren’s priority list. He loved Teigh, and he would love Caiden, but their relationship centered on Riley. She held them together. “Caiden will fade, and there will be nothing we can do about it.”
    He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his chest. “The demons won’t let him stay away. They’ll make him want your power. They’ll drive him to madness if necessary.”
    She hadn’t considered that possibility. “We’ve lost him either way.”
    Teigh shook his head. “Even if he is insane, we can heal him afterward. When he accepted this role, Soren knew he wouldn’t have an easy time of it. Circe, we all knew this wasn’t going to be easy. The alternative was to permanently lose our daughters.”
    He shuddered. Riley turned in his arms, seeking to console him. While they hadn’t talked about it too much, she knew he had seen the carnage up close and personal. All these years later, the wounds remained fresh. Losing fourteen of his daughters over the last three thousand years weighed heavily on his soul.
    “It’s not your fault, Teigh. You said the island was magical, that humans only found it after huge storms when they’d been shipwrecked. There was no reason to have elaborate defenses.”
    Some memories had returned to her. Lazy afternoons spent lounging naked on the beach with her three lovers. Visits to her father, the sun, that often ended badly because she refused to give up her human lovers to return home. Holding a daughter afloat as she learned to swim in the calm pool that formed at high tide. Thankfully, the massacre remained a distant nightmare.
    Teigh had been