“Shock his heart,” demanded Luke.
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” said Quinn. “This isn’tGrey’s Anatomy. Using a defibrillator won’t restart his heart if he doesn’t have a shockable rhythm. Do you know CPR?”
Luke nodded.
“Start compressions.”C’mon Brandon. Don’t you dare die on me.“Adam, defibrillator.” She pointed at the group huddled on the other side of the gurney. “One of you get over here and keep bagging him.”
The dude on the left of Marigold heeded Quinn’s demand, taking over the task of squeezing air into Brandon’s lungs.
Adam got the defibrillator ready and then opened the sterile heart paddles, which he handed to Quinn. The minute it took to get the defibrillator charged felt like a year. As Luke kept doing compressions, he stared down at her, his green eyes firm with resolve, and something else. Something more primal that made Quinn uncomfortable. What was this guy’s deal?
“Doctor, we have v-tach,” said Adam.
“Well, that’s something at least. When I say clear,” she said to the men. “The two of you move the hell away.”
The moment the machine indicated readiness, she yelled, “Clear!”
The men backed off immediately.
Quinn put the paddles on Brandon’s chest and said, “Shock!”
Adam pressed the shock button. Brandon’s body twitched, but his heart rhythm didn’t reset.
“We’re doing it again. You, start bagging. Luke, compressions.”
Quinn waited for the charge to complete, and yelled, “Clear!”
The men moved back, and Quinn pressed the paddles to Brandon’s skin. The current released. She stared at the heart monitor. “Beat,” she pleaded softly. “Just freaking beat.”
Everyone in the room, except for Adam, who was back at the task of bagging Brandon, held their breath.
Tump. A surge of hope filled Quinn.Again,she silently begged.Again.
Tump-ka-tump.Tump-ka-tump.
“We have a regular rhythm,” said Adam.
Marigold whimpered her relief. A tear clouded Quinn’s eye when Brandon took his first long breath on his own in four minutes. Jesus. Only four minutes. It had felt like a lifetime. Adam deflated the balloon at the end of the intubation tube and pulled it out of Brandon’s throat.
“Is he going to be okay?” Marigold asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Quinn said honestly as she cleaned and bandaged the wound. He was a shifter, so sewing up the wound would only impede Brandon’s natural ability to heal. After it was over, she took his sister’s hand, her own covered in blood. “He’s strong, Mari. Brandon will fight to stay alive. To stay with you. With us.”
She meant the clan, but Marigold got a strange look on her face at Quinn’s words. “When can we move him home?”
“He’ll have to shift soon. I was afraid he’d do it while I had my hand in his chest.” Which was why she’d told Adam to get the group. If Brandon had changed into bear form, it would have taken a supernaturally combined effort to control him. “I’ll close him up, and if his vitals stay stable, we’ll arrange to transport him back to the clan tomorrow. The next day at the latest.”
“He’ll have to be protected.”
Brandon was third in line for the chief’s position if Quinn didn’t find a mate. Which meant, he was a potential threat to Trey Steele.
Quinn nodded. “We’ll take him to my family’s home. I’m staying there until…” She shook her head. “Well, I’m staying there for now.” She hadn’t lived in Orsino Clan territory since medical school, but she’d moved back after her father’s death.
Luke moved next to Marigold, his dark gaze pinning hers. “I’ll post a crew with him until he can be moved.”
Her bear, an alpha in her own right, perked up at Luke’s assertiveness. A shiver of pleasure and fear ran over Quinn’s skin. This was a stranger and already taken, if the looks Marigold passed him were any indication. She couldn’t allow herself to feel for someone who could never be hers. But God! Those blue eyes, the color of the Caribbean sea over white sand, made her thighs vibrate with need.
Every shifter in the room stared at her, except the unconscious one, of course. Stupid hormones. And her stupid, horny bear. Her animal growled its displeasure at her accusation.Down, girl,she chided and conceded that she might be the horny one.
