Chapter 246 Chapter 246

Chapter 246 Chapter 246
Amber

There had to be something.

My mind snapped into motion, shoving grief aside with sheer force. I moved toward the crash cart with trembling urgency, ripping open drawers without caring about the noise they made.

Think. Think like a surgeon.

My fingers skimmed over labeled compartments until I found it.

Epinephrine.

A small glass ampule nestled among the crash medications.

My breath hitched.

Beside it, I grabbed a new spinal needle—longer, sturdier. My hands moved automatically, muscle memory taking over where emotion threatened to sabotage me.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was breaking protocol. This wasn’t how this was done. Not outside a controlled code situation. Not without a team. Not like this.

I wasn’t acting as a doctor. I was acting as a mate.

And right now, I would burn the entire rulebook if it meant seeing one of his stupid smirks directed at me again.

There was no time for sterile technique.

No time for gloves. No time for perfect precision.

My fingers fumbled with the glass ampule. I snapped the neck of the vial with my bare thumb.

The glass sliced into my skin. I felt the resistance give and warm blood trickled down my finger but I didn’t feel it. I couldn't even bring myself to care.

I quickly drew up the clear liquid into the syringe. The plunger trembled in my grasp. The fluid shimmered slightly under the harsh surgical lights.

My hands were shaking so badly I had to steady my wrist against the cart.

“Hold still,” I muttered to myself.

Turning back to Rayne, I flung off the cloth covering his chest.

His skin looked pale against the stark white of the table. I pressed my left hand against his ribs, feeling carefully. I was searching for the gap. The intercostal space.

If I hit bone, it would deflect.

If I angled wrong—

No.

I pushed that thought away.

My fingertips traced along his ribcage until I felt it.

The subtle dip between bone.

There.

I paused.

Just for a second.

My heart was pounding so violently I thought I might faint. My breath came in ragged pulls, fogging slightly in front of me.

“You don’t get to quit, Rayne,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “Not today. Not tomorrow. Too many people need you, so wake up.”

I positioned the needle.

And then I drove it in.

The needle passed through the skin first. There was a small resistance, then a give.

Then deeper.

It pierced through the intercostal muscle.

The sound—

Dear goddess.

The faint, sickening crunch as the needle pushed through tough muscle tissue was visceral in the otherwise silent operating room.

My stomach lurched.

But I didn’t stop.

I steadied my shaking hand, refusing to let panic take over.

Deeper.

The needle entered the pericardium; the sac around the heart. Then finally the heart muscle itself.

I felt the subtle shift.

I knew I was there.

Once the needle was deep enough, I pressed the plunger down firmly.

The epinephrine emptied directly into his heart chamber.

All of it.

I withdrew the needle carefully and discarded the syringe somewhere behind me, not caring where it landed.

My heart climbed into my throat as I stared at him.

Waiting.

Come on.

Come on.

There was nothing.

No gasp or twitch. Not even a flicker in his eyelids.

The room was dead silent except for my own ragged breathing.

Each inhale scraped my lungs raw.

Seconds passed. Then more.

The silence became mocking.

Cruel and heavy.

Minutes crawled by.

And then—

The hopelessness rushed in all at once. It swallowed me whole. My legs gave out.

I stumbled backward until my back hit a metal trolley. It rattled loudly from the impact.

I grabbed onto it for support as all the strength drained from my body.

I had done everything.

EVERYTHING.

And he still hadn’t woken up.

Which could only mean—

“No!”

Irma’s voice exploded inside me with a rage so holy it felt like it altered the air itself.

“Our mate is not dead,” she roared. “I will not allow it. He needs us and we need him. It cannot end like this!”

My head spun.

“The bond… the bond will save him,” she insisted. “Amber, we need to mark him. Right now!”

The words sounded insane.

Even to my grief-ridden mind.

Omegas didn’t mark Alphas.

It had always been the other way around.

The mate mark was a claim. A tether. A binding of two souls into one mind and one heart.

Wait… One mind and one heart.

My heart was working perfectly. And I was more than willing to share it.

A wild, almost hysterical idea sparked in my mind.

What if the epinephrine was gasoline?

What if I had just poured fuel into a dead engine?

And what if the mate mark—

Was the spark?

The whole thing sounded unhinged. Desperate. Completely crazy and with no scientific backing but I had nothing left to lose.

Nothing.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, I walked back to Rayne.

My legs felt unstable, but I forced them to carry me.

I leaned over him.

Slowly, I released my canines.

They slid down instinctively, sharp and ready.

I positioned myself over his chest, right above his heart. And I bit down.

My teeth pierced his skin cleanly.

The metallic tang of his blood hit my tongue instantly. Warm. Salty. Something else followed.

Heat.

A strange, powerful heat flooded through me, starting at my mouth and exploding outward through my veins.

I pulled back sharply, wiping my lips with the back of my hand.

The bite mark on his chest seemed to glow faintly. Almost imperceptibly but I saw it.

It shimmered.

And then it healed over, sealing into a permanent scar.

My heart began to pound again.

Not from fear, rather this was something else.

Something deeply familiar and exhilarating.

Something alive.

I felt it.

The bond.

It took root like lightning striking dry earth.

It was sudden, blinding and consuming and just as the rush of it calmed, I felt something else…

His heart.

I felt it alongside mine.

It was faint at first.

A weak, stuttering rhythm trying to find itself.

Then another beat.

And another.

It began to align with mine.

Searching.

Adjusting.

Trying to match the cadence.

Like two instruments tuning to the same note.

Like a miracle, Rayne gasped.

The sound tore through the room.

His body jerked as air rushed violently into his lungs.

His eyes flew open, wild and panicked.

I didn’t hesitate.

I cupped his head and pulled it against my chest, holding him tightly.

“Shh. Shh. It’s okay,” I murmured urgently. “I’m here. You’re safe. You’re safe, Rayne.”

He struggled weakly at first, disoriented, but my hands remained firm and steady.

“It’s me,” I whispered. “I’ve got you.”

His breathing was labored.

Uneven.

His heart was beating but not strongly.

I could feel it struggling to maintain rhythm.

“Stay with me,” I urged softly.

Quickly, I reached for the oxygen tank nearby. My hands moved efficiently this time, adrenaline sharpening every movement. I fitted the mask over his face and secured it gently.

“Breathe,” I soothed. “Just breathe.”

Slowly, gradually, his body began to relax.

The panic in his eyes faded.

His breathing steadied slightly under the oxygen flow.

And only then—

Only then—

Did it fully hit me.

RAYNE WAS ALIVE.

Alive.

He had just—

He had just come back.

A hysterical sound bubbled up from my chest.

I screamed.

Not in grief this time. In disbelief. In joy.

“Doctor!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Doctor!”

The doors burst open moments later, the doctor rushing in with several nurses behind him.

He froze mid-step.

His eyes widened in shock as he took in the scene—Rayne conscious, oxygen mask on, monitors suddenly picking up rhythm again.

There was no time for questions.

No time for marveling.

The doctor snapped into action immediately.

“Get him stabilized!” he barked.

Nurses rushed forward.

Machines were reconnected.

Vitals monitored.

Understanding that my presence would only slow them down, I stepped back toward the door.

But before leaving, I leaned down and pressed a trembling kiss to Rayne’s hand.

“I’ll be waiting,” I whispered.

And then I walked out.