---- Chapter 24 JOSIE POV: The drive back to our hotel was quiet and peaceful. The lights of Paris blurred into soft streaks of gold outside the window. Chris held my hand, his thumb stroking my knuckles. "I'm proud of you, Josie," he said softly, breaking the silence. "You've built all of this yourself." "Not by myself," | said, squeezing his hand. "You were always there." He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. "Always." In that moment, everything felt perfect. The ghosts of the past were finally gone. | was free, | was successful, and | was with the man who had shown me what real love was. Then, the world exploded in a screech of tires and a blinding flash of light. | saw it out of the corner of my eye-a huge truck, its headlights off, barreling through a red light directly toward my side of the car. There was no time to scream, no time to think. But Chris reacted. In the split second before impact, he unbuckled his seatbelt, ---- not to save himself, but to lunge across the console. He threw his body over mine, a human shield, his arms wrapping around my head. "I've got you," he whispered against my ear. The crash was a deafening roar of twisting metal and shattering glass. The force of the impact threw us against the door. | felt the jarring shock through Chris's body, heard his sharp intake of breath as he took the brunt of the collision. His back was slammed against the crushed frame of the car. The smell of burnt rubber filled the air, mixed with something else... the acrid, sickening scent of silver. The truck's bumper had been coated in it. This wasn't an accident. It was an attack. Rogues, loyal to Rosalie's memory. When the spinning stopped, there was a ringing silence. | was alive. Unharmed. Pinned beneath Chris's protective weight. He was groaning, his breathing shallow. Paramedics pulled us from the wreckage. As they laid Chris on a stretcher, | saw the back of his suit jacket was shredded, his skin beneath a raw, blackened mess where the silver-laced metal had hit him. | rode in the ambulance, holding his hand, my mind a blank slate of terror. Laurence was at the hospital. | don't know how he got there so fast. He tried to approach me in the waiting room, his face etched with worry. ---- "Josie, |..." The sight of him shattered my shock and unleashed a torrent of rage. "You!" | screamed, my voice raw. "This is your fault! They were after you! You bring this chaos, this violence! Get out! Get out and leave us alone!" He flinched as if | had physically struck him, his face paling. He saw the pure, undiluted hatred in my eyes and, for the first time, he seemed to understand. His presence wasn't a comfort; it was a curse. He turned and walked away without another word. After hours of surgery, the doctor told me Chris was stable. He would survive. But the silver poisoning was severe. It had seeped into the bone of his right leg. He would live, but he would be crippled. A month later, Chris was still in the hospital, beginning a long and painful recovery. | sat by his bed, reading to him. He reached out and took my hand. "Josie," he said, his voice serious. "That night... | thought | was going to lose you. | thought | was going to die without ever asking." He struggled to sit up, his face tight with pain. "| don't want to waste another second. | don't want to have any more regrets." He looked into my eyes, his own filled with a desperate, beautiful love. "Josie Watson, will you be my wife? Will you be ---- my Luna?" Tears streamed down my face. | looked at this incredible man who had literally thrown himself in front of a truck for me. Who had guarded my heart, nurtured my talent, and healed my soul. This was love. This was my home. "Yes," | whispered. "Yes, Chris. | will." He slipped a simple silver band onto my finger. We were Second Chance Mates, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. Outside the room, in the hallway, a heavy glass thermos clattered to the floor, but | didn't hear it. Laurence stood there, his heart shattering into a million pieces. As he stared at the closed door, his Mind-Link crackled to life. It was his Beta, Felix. "Alpha... it's the Elder Luna. Madeline. She's... she's fading. She's asking for you." Forced to choose between his obsession and his duty, Laurence finally turned his back on the life he could never have. On his grandmother's deathbed, he swore a sacred, binding oath to the dying matriarch and the Moon Goddess: he would never interfere in Josie's life again. To break the vow would be to forfeit his Alpha power, and his very wolf.