You take a deep breath and tell him everything in as much detail as you can. The Alpha listens, occasionally sipping his tea, but never interrupts. When you finish, he nods.
"Thank you, Gideon Mercer."
You wait for some kind of verdict. Would he approve of what you did? Disapprove? Were you going to be hailed as heroes of the pack? Or made to scrub the bathroom floor for a month?
"I'll speak to you all again tomorrow," the Alpha says quietly. "When I've had time to think on this."
Somehow, that was the only answer you weren't expecting.
"Marco," the Alpha says. "Gideon Mercer. Clean yourselves up. Get some sleep. Ed. Vicky. Your patrol isn't over."
"Yes Alpha," they say in unison.
Next
So, that's the story of how you chased a stray out of your territory. Despite yourself, you keep replaying everything over and over again, trying to make sense of it all. There are too many unanswered questions. What was the stray doing? Why was she out on a night like this? How had she evaded your pack until now? Why had she? Why did she hate you so much?
Grimly, you wonder if there is any hope of getting any sleep tonight. It seems like a forlorn possibility, but perhaps still worth the attempt.
Or maybe the best thing to do would be to go outside and burn off some energy in the last hour or two before dawn.