Spieden remained silent by his side, settling in as if preparing for a longer spiel. Sahalie on the other hand seemed less than pleased by the leader's assertion. Her obvious frown made him scowl in turn, sending her a pointed glance; It was all well and good that she trusted the boy, but Drestig couldn't just let a stranger into his pack on her word alone. He needed to be sure some angry parent would not come running, accusing him of kidnapping or who knew what else. He needed to know who he was accepting, and he needed to hear it from the boys own mouth. Then the graying man sighed to himself, Halie was still a pup herself, after all, he couldn't expect her to understand the intricacies. This Alastor was her friend and she clearly trusted and cared for him, to her that was all that mattered; And I suppose it should… But I can't keep accepting pups just on the account of them being her friends. The alpha sent a long glance towards the young Tainn, the shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly and looked to the boy as he answered the questions.

It was clear that the grey lad was made uncomfortable by the query, and as he began to explain, it wasn't hard to see why. Drestig felt for the boy as he listened to the story, and he could understand how it couldn't be pleasant to have to reiterate the tale; Probably not for the first time either… Still, he stood by his reasoning for asking. The answer though, was fair and the dark chap nodded to himself, soft smile returning to his lips. "Thank you Alastor. I'm sorry for all your loses." His voice was low, expression kind as he looked at the boy. There wasn't much else to ask for, not now at least. Drestig glanced sideways at Spieden, gauging to see if she might have anything to add, though she seemed contented enough. Then his fiery gaze returned to the youngsters. "Very well. You are welcome here, lad. I'm sure Sahalie will show you to the den." He nodded towards the swarthy girl, waiting for the two of them to disappear into the territory before he turned away, intending to do a quick patrol before heading to bed himself. He had more questions he would like answered, both from Halie and Alastor, but they could wait. It was late, and the boy had clearly been through a lot; Drestig could respect his need to rest.

Word count: 424

Thoughts ”Speech”