The studio was a dream.

Glass-walled control rooms. Warm-toned hardwood floors. A grand piano that looked like it had been blessed by a dozen Grammy winners. The walls were lined with platinum records, and the soundproofing was so clean even Thane’s claws on the floor didn’t echo.

They’d booked the place for five straight days — no distractions, just music. Every track on the new album was coming together in beautiful, feral chaos. The beats hit harder. The guitars screamed brighter. Gabriel’s bass thundered like a heart under a full moon.

Even Mark was caught smiling during playback. Smiling.

Jonah ran around shouting “Album of the freakin’ decade!” and Cassie kept replaying vocal takes just to hear herself crush the high notes. Thane, always the practical one, kept watch over file backups and session logs like a paranoid cyberwolf. The plan was airtight.

Until it wasn’t.

It started with a message.

Cassie spotted it first. A fan tweet. Then another. Then hundreds.

“I don’t know if this is real but if it is, the new Feral Eclipse album just dropped on a sketchy Russian forum and IT. IS. INSANE.”
“Track 4 broke my soul in half, thank you Thane.”
“Leak or not, I’m buying five copies when it’s out.”

Gabriel nearly dropped his coffee. “Wait… what?”

Thane was already across the room, pulling up the studio’s master cloud vault. Sure enough—someone had gotten in. Tracks uploaded. Rough mixes. Unfinished vocals. Even one take where Jonah dropped a stick and cussed mid-fill.

Mark leaned over his shoulder. “We’ve been compromised. Time of breach: yesterday afternoon. Entry point’s either the session share link or someone from the label being real dumb.”

There was a pause.

Then Thane chuckled.

Maya blinked. “Wait… you’re not mad?”

“Not mad,” Thane said. “Just amused. It leaked. Big deal.”

Gabriel flopped onto the couch with a grin. “Man… let ‘em have it. If fans are this hyped over unmixed demos? Wait ‘til they hear the real thing.”

Cassie tapped away on her phone. “Too late. There’s already a TikTok dance to the bridge of ‘Teeth Like Prayers.’ It has forty thousand views. No video. Just audio and vibes.”

Jonah burst into laughter. “Okay, that’s amazing.”

Thane stood, cracked his knuckles, and looked around at his band — his pack — who weren’t angry or panicked, just buzzing with the raw energy of being heard.

“Alright then,” he said. “Let’s ride the wave.”

Within hours, Feral Eclipse posted a single image to their socials: a snarling wolf silhouette over a glitchy, distorted version of the album’s cover.

“So… you found it. We see you. We love you. See you on tour.”

The fans lost their minds. #LeakedAndUnleashed trended within the hour. Bootlegs flew through every corner of the internet — and the band? They leaned in. Started releasing behind-the-scenes footage. Dropped early merch tied to the leaked track titles. Even hosted a livestream from the studio, where they laughed at the chaos and answered fan questions.

Someone asked Gabriel if he was mad.

He grinned, shook his head, and said, “Not mad. Just glad the wolves are listening.”

The music had escaped the cage.

And that was exactly what it was meant to do.