Burning Up

the bruising down.”
    “Xie xie.” It came out automatically, a response to this healer’s touch. Tamsyn had hands like her grandmother. Caring hands. Trustworthy hands.
    “You’re welcome.” A smile she could hear though her eyes were closed. “Emmett, you need to leave us alone for a few minutes.”
    She felt the big body around hers tense. Forcing open her lids, she patted him on the chest, not quite sure where she found the courage. The leopard changelings were lethal when roused. But, in spite of the fierce scowl on his face, she had a feeling this cat would never hurt her. “I’ll be okay.”
    “Tammy,” Emmett argued, scowl darkening even further, “she’s half asleep.”
    “I need to ask her some personal questions,” Tamsyn said in that calm, capable voice, “so I can see if she needs any other meds.”
    Ria’s fuzzy brain cleared. “He didn’t get that far. Just knocked me around some.”
    A growl filled the air. She jolted upright, heart thudding at a hundred miles an hour. “What was that?”
    “Emmett.”
    Blinking at Tammy’s tone, she glanced at the man who held her. “You?”
    “I am a leopard,” he said, as if surprised by her surprise.
    “Forget him,” Tamsyn said, catching Ria’s gaze as she disinfected the scratches on her knees. “You sure about what happened, kitten? No one’s going to judge you.”
    It was impossible not to trust this woman. “I threw my handbag at him, kneed him in the balls. After that, he was more interested in hurting me than . . . you know.”
    Tamsyn nodded. “Alright, then. But if you ever need to talk, you call me.” She slid a card into the giant handbag someone had retrieved and put in the ambulance while Ria hadn’t been looking.
    “That’s—” Ria began when there was a commotion outside.
    “Where’s my daughter? You! Where is she? Tell me right now or I’ll—”
    “Mom.” Ria felt tears rise for the first time as her mother entered the ambulance, pushing Tammy out of the way as if the other woman wasn’t stronger and taller.
    “My baby.” Alex patted her all over, kissing her forehead with a mother’s tender warmth. “That piece of shit.”
    “Mom!” Her mother never swore. When Ria’s grandmother was feeling wicked, she called Alex a “tightass” simply to see her explode—her grandmother was a firecracker.
    “You!” Alex fixed a gimlet eye on Emmett. “Why do you have your hands on my daughter?”
    Those hands cuddled her even closer. “I’m looking after her.”
    Alex huffed. “Didn’t look after her very well, did you? She got attacked right here, almost on the main road.”
    “Mom,” Ria said, intending to stop the diatribe, when Emmett calmly nodded and said, “It was my fault. I’ll fix it.”
    “It was not your fault,” Ria said, but no one was listening to her.
    “Good.” Alex turned back to Ria. “Your grandmother’s waiting for you.”
    “How did you manage to make her wait at home?”
    “I told her you’d want her special jasmine tea when you got back.”
     
    E mmett had grown up in a strong and vibrant pack. He’d figured he could handle Ria’s family. That was before he met her grandmother. Five feet nothing of pure fury and a tightly held rage that was all the more impressive for its control. Ria came first, of course. Emmett would’ve allowed noth-Ria came first, of course. Emmett would’ve allowed nothing less, even if her grandmother hadn’t ordered him to carry Ria—who was protesting that she could “walk, for goodness sake”—into what looked like the grandmother’s bedroom, so she could wash up and change. Soon as he’d completed that task, he was banished to the kitchen to wait.
    Ria’s father was still at the site, being restrained from giving the near-dead attacker even more of a beating. So was Ria’s older brother. Which left him in the kitchen with Ria’s mom and sister-in-law. Alex and Amber looked more like sisters than anything else. Ria’s mom was a pretty woman, petite and graceful. Amber was cut in the same mold—even heavily pregnant as she was now, her features were delicate, her arms slimly fragile.
    Emmett stayed very carefully in the chair where he’d been ordered to sit. He was afraid he’d break one of them if he accidentally touched them. Now Ria, Ria he wanted to handle .
    “Drink!” Something slammed in front of him.
    He looked down at the puddle of jasmine tea around his little cup and decided not to mention Alex’s temper.