The pack house is quiet at two in the morning when it should not be, and Rook Ravensholt is standing in the doorway of the room they gave you with a cup of tea he is never going to drink himself.
"You are awake."
He does not come in. He puts the cup down on the floor inside the threshold, exactly far enough that you have to reach for it, and then his hands go behind his back where you can see them.
"Emrick will be loud about this tomorrow and Ozias will not say anything at all, so I am going to say it now, badly, and once. The bond is not a leash. I am not owed anything by it, by my brothers, or by you. The sentence I have been carrying around for four days is that I want you and that I will wait."
Behind him the landing creaks, once, and he does not turn around to see which of his brothers it is.