Chapter 6 - THE FIRE THAT DIVIDED TWO FAMILIES
Nathaniel arrived forty minutes later.
Emma opened the door.
He stood in the hallway wearing jeans and a dark sweater.
Without the suit, he looked younger.
Less like an untouchable Alpha.
More like a man who hadn't slept.
She handed him the journal.
He read the final entry.
His face changed.
“Evelyn Whitmore,” he whispered.
“You knew her?”
Nathaniel shook his head.
“No. But my mother did.”
Emma sat.
He joined her.
Twenty-five years earlier, the Mercer family had been involved in a territorial dispute with a powerful council faction.
Nathaniel's mother believed the council was using arranged bonds to consolidate wealth and influence.
She opposed the practice.
Then a fire destroyed a lodge where several reform-minded families had gathered.
Nathaniel's mother died.
Others disappeared.
Among them was a young woman named Evelyn Whitmore.
Emma stared.
“My mother?”
Nathaniel nodded.
“She survived. We never knew where she went.”
Emma looked at the journal.
“She came to Blackridge.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nathaniel hesitated.
“Because Blackridge leadership promised sanctuary.”
Emma felt cold.
“Grant Holloway's family?”
Nathaniel nodded.
For years, Nathaniel had searched for records of the fire.
But evidence was missing.
Witnesses were dead.
And the council refused to reopen the case.
Emma looked at him.
“Do you think my mother knew who started it?”
Nathaniel stared at the journal.
“I think she knew more than anyone realized.”
Emma swallowed.
“And the bond?”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“My mother believed the Mercer line carried an old form of wolf bond. One that couldn't be created through political arrangements.”
Emma's heart pounded.
“Meaning?”
He reached for her hand.
Then stopped.
“May I?”
Emma nodded.
He took her hand.
The warmth returned instantly.
Her wolf stirred.
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
“This,” he whispered, “is what my mother spent her life trying to protect.”
Emma stared.
May you like
And for the first time, she wondered whether the bond between them was not merely romantic.
Whether it was the beginning of something the council had spent decades trying to bury.
