The bus rolled smoothly down the highway, the city of Dallas slowly shrinking in the rearview mirrors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Up front, Diesel had one hand on the wheel and the other on a thermos of truck stop coffee that could strip paint. His weathered face was calm, but his tone was more stunned than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doin\u2019 this thirty years,\u201d he said, eyes locked on the road. \u201cNever… ever<\/em> seen a fire marshal turn into a fanboy and give a rock band a police-grade highway send-off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel leaned in from the co-pilot seat, tail thumping lazily behind him. \u201cThat\u2019s \u2018cause you\u2019ve never driven a werewolf band before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diesel chuckled, slow and gravelly. \u201cYou boys are damn lucky I like weird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the real show<\/em> was happening behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entire crew\u2014Thane, Gabriel, Mark, Jonah, Maya, Rico and Cassie \u2014 were crammed into the front lounge around Emily and her tablet. She sat cross-legged on the couch, her auburn hair in a messy braid, scrolling through the absolute explosion of social media content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOkay, this one\u2019s from Lindsay the waitress,\u201d she said, tapping the screen. A grainy vertical video played of the moment Gabriel leapt onto the table at the diner. The caption read: Laughter broke out across the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOkay, but look at this remix,\u201d Emily added, swiping again. Now it was the same footage\u2014but auto-tuned.<\/strong> Gabriel\u2019s line about \u201cwe\u2019re not just a band\u2026 we\u2019re a pack<\/em>\u201d had been remixed into a full-on beat drop, synced with flashing diner lights and someone edited in sparkles around Mark\u2019s mop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWHAT?!\u201d Jonah screamed, practically falling off the couch. \u201cWE GOT AUTO-TUNED??\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI like<\/em> the sparkles,\u201d Mark muttered, deadpan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cassie nearly choked on a granola bar. \u201cThey added lens flares to your eyes, Mark!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily kept scrolling\u2014clips of the fire truck, fan cars honking in rhythm, people howling at intersections. Hashtags were trending worldwide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n #FeralEscort<\/strong> Thane folded his arms and smiled, quiet but proud. \u201cThis one\u2019s gonna stick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel was busy trying to balance another salt shaker on his snout while watching a fan video on the ceiling monitor. \u201cI feel like we just won the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cut to: A grungy, half-lit green room.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cracked tile floor. A flickering fluorescent light buzzing overhead like a dying wasp. An old couch that probably had tetanus. In the corner, a microwave with the door duct-taped shut. The Vandal Saints<\/strong>\u2014the self-important, try-hard rock band who used to think they<\/em> were rising stars\u2014sat hunched in defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bret, the lead singer, was watching the viral diner video on his phone. Again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane\u2019s name trended globally. Gabriel\u2019s face had been animated into three different reaction gifs. Mark was now the subject of an official meme page called \u201cOccupational Werewolves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video ended with Thane\u2019s slow-mo wave out the bus window as the firetruck lights strobed behind him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bret\u2019s lip curled. His knuckles went white around his phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he SCREAMED\u2014raw, incoherent\u2014and hurled<\/em> his phone at the green room wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The impact sent it into oblivion. Bits of plastic and shattered screen rained down like glittering confetti. One of the lights above sparked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cARE YOU KIDDING ME?!\u201d he bellowed. \u201cTHEY GOT A FIRE TRUCK?! A FIRE TRUCK?!<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in the corner of the green room, Lance<\/strong>, the Vandal Saints\u2019 bassist, sat slouched on an amp case, phone tilted discreetly in his hand. He wasn\u2019t putting on eyeliner \u2014 not this time. He was filming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secretly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Bret spiraled \u2014 pacing, yelling, finally screaming loud enough to rattle the pipes \u2014 Lance just kept recording. When the phone hit the wall and shattered into a million pieces, Lance never even flinched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He uploaded the clip, then added a comment: A few minutes later, that clip hit TikTok with the caption: In under an hour, it was everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #GreenRoomRage<\/strong> And somewhere on the highway, curled up on the couch beside Thane, Gabriel blinked as a new notification popped up on Emily\u2019s feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWait\u2026 is that Bret<\/em> from Vandal Saints?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane leaned over and smirked. \u201cGuess even they know who the real alpha is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The bus rolled smoothly down the highway, the city of Dallas slowly shrinking in the rearview mirrors. Up front, Diesel had one hand on the wheel and the other on a thermos of truck stop coffee that could strip paint. His weathered face was calm, but his tone was more stunned than usual. \u201cI\u2019ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3104,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/3104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cI THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA EAT SOMEONE BUT HE GAVE A SPEECH \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d #WerewolfWisdom\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
#MoppingMark<\/strong>
#WolfBreakfastUprising<\/strong>
#FeralEclipseForever<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMeanwhile\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStill team Feral. #BassistsUnite.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen your lead singer\u2019s ego gets torched by a werewolf bassist.\u201d<\/strong>
Posted from a burner account named @basslinesandsilverthings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
#VandalSad<\/strong>
#BetaVibesOnly<\/strong>
#GabrielWouldNever<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n