The pack hadn\u2019t even made it out of the hotel lobby before chaos struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thane was the first one downstairs, black polo shirt wrinkle-free, carry-on slung over one shoulder, and the expression of a wolf who really<\/em> needed a gallon of coffee and a quiet terminal gate. He paused in the archway as a now-familiar chorus of gasps, shrieks, and camera flashes exploded from the cluster of fans that had somehow increased<\/em> overnight in the hotel foyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre you kidding me?\u201d he muttered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind him, the elevator dinged and opened to reveal the rest of the pack \u2014 bleary-eyed, half-dressed, some still chewing the hotel\u2019s free breakfast rolls. Gabriel stepped out looking like he hadn\u2019t slept at all and grinned wide like he was the Grand Marshal of a chaos parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh good, they waited for us,\u201d he said cheerfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cassie blinked into the crowd. \u201cIs that guy holding a homemade Gabriel plushie<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d Maya deadpanned. \u201cAnd it\u2019s disturbingly well-made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOkay, eyes up, bags tight,\u201d Thane growled. \u201cWe\u2019re not missing this flight because someone wants you to sign their thigh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut what if it\u2019s a really nice<\/em> thigh?\u201d Rico grinned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark groaned. \u201cI need two<\/em> coffees before you talk like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Security had been warned, but they were vastly unprepared. By the time the pack made it into the shuttle van, four security guards had been steamrolled by a group of teenage superfans trying to get a selfie with Jonah (he posed mid-struggle), and one elderly tourist had mistaken Gabriel for an avant-garde Disney mascot and asked if he\u2019d be at the parade later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The drive to the airport was no better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time the bus slowed for a light, fans on scooters and bikes zipped up alongside, waving signs and phones. Thane gripped his seat like it was a lifeline. Gabriel waved out the window like a lunatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re gonna miss our gate,\u201d Thane muttered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, we\u2019re gonna make memories,\u201d Gabriel replied, tossing one last cookie out the window to a girl in a Feral Eclipse hoodie who burst into tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the airport entrance, the chaos reached a fever pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dozens more fans. Drones overhead. One guy in a werewolf fursuit doing cartwheels near the departures sign. Security tried to create a human chain to get the band through the front doors, but Gabriel somehow ended up crowd-surfing over a group of screaming college students before Thane grabbed him by the tail and yanked him back to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside, things didn\u2019t calm down so much as rearrange<\/em> into a different flavor of madness. Check-in was interrupted by autograph requests. Bag drop became a photo session. Customs flagged Jonah\u2019s drumsticks. Emily got mistaken for a pop star. And Mark nearly growled at a child trying to yank a tuft of his fur as a \u201csouvenir.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time they made it to the terminal, it looked like a crime scene in a merch store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every member of the pack was surrounded by exhausted airport staff, wide-eyed onlookers, and at least two travelers trying to sell their boarding passes just to stick around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane finally corralled them all near the gate, pressed both paws to his temples, and muttered, \u201cEurope was amazing. But if anyone speaks to me before we\u2019re at cruising altitude, I\u2019m jumping out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel beamed and patted him on the back. \u201cLove you too, Alpha.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, through sheer force of will and airline pity, they all made it onto the plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Destination: Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Lord help the Will Rogers Airport when this<\/em> pack landed back home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The pack hadn\u2019t even made it out of the hotel lobby before chaos struck. Thane was the first one downstairs, black polo shirt wrinkle-free, carry-on slung over one shoulder, and the expression of a wolf who really needed a gallon of coffee and a quiet terminal gate. He paused in the archway as a now-familiar […]<\/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-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","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=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2978,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions\/2978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}