"We planned for three, now we're seven," Daron says.
He rubs a hand over his jaw. "We'll need more food. More everything. The road in is worse."
"How long is the move?"
"Day's drive. Less if we push."
Down the hallway, something hits wood. Not the pacing-thud. Harder. A body weight against a wall. A wall-thump. The whole pack hears it. We all turn at the same moment, like one body. Thaw's gold eyes go to the hallway.
"He's coming up," I say.
"He's been at it awhile," Dean says.
A second thud. Harder. The plates on the kitchen shelf rattle.
Thaw is on his feet. "Jen. Stay in the kitchen."
"I should —"
"Jen." His voice is the alpha note. I sit back down. "Stay. Nobody approaches the door. Crull in the hallway as backup. Harek, stay with her. Dean — front door. Daron — back window in case he goes through that."
The pack splits in one motion.
Crull goes down the hallway behind Thaw. Daron is out the back door. Dean is at the front door. Harek slides off his wall and steps between me and the hallway — not blocking my sightline, just there, close, his shoulder a foot from mine.
Down the hall, Thaw's voice through the door. Low.
"Fen. Brother. You're not in the cell Fen."
The pacing stops.
For one second the cabin is silent.
Then a long sustained crack — wood splintering — and a heavy slamming impact that shakes the kitchen floor under my chair, and a loud roar makes my ears ring.
He has broken something.
The hollow opens. Not a flutter. A pull. For one second the static breaks and I feel into him — climbing toward me through the chaos, the want and the man fighting himself.
My chest aches.
Harek's arm comes around my shoulders and pulls me into him. He has felt the ache come through the new bond and he is holding me because if he were not there I would already be walking down that hallway.
Down the hall, through the door, Thaw says, very quiet, "That's right, brother. That's right. You hold it. We've got the rest."
The static closes back over. Fen has gone under again.
In the kitchen, my coffee is still steaming.
"Two days," Dean says quietly from the front door. "Then we move."
Thaw comes back down the hallway and stops in the kitchen doorway. His gold eyes find mine.
"Not yet, Jen. I know you want to. Not until we know what he does to himself trying not to hurt you."
"Okay," I say.
I want to walk down the hallway anyway.
