Chapter 3

My eyes watched as the teachers and staff lost complete control of the kids. Kids now ran out of the buildings, joining the amassing group. They tried to stop them, realizing that the alarms were just pulled and nothing was going on, but it was too late.

Our plan had worked. Now the next phase was going to start. The school would call the Alpha, my father. The next test of my months of research and experiments. We finished up the second song and I leaned into the mic to start the song off.

‘We’ll never get free, lamb to the slaughter’

‘What you gonna’ do when there’s blood in the water?’

‘The price of your greed is your son and your daughter’

‘What you gonna’ do when there’s blood in the water?’

Vince took over and I hit the bass drum, to start off the chorus. My eyes glowed as we finished the verse and we dropped into the chorus and I slammed across the toms and cymbals. It was fucking awesome. I hadn’t been this excited and this pumped before.

‘I am the people’

‘I am the storm’

‘I am the riot’

‘I am the swarm’

‘When the last tree’s fallen’

‘The animal can’t hide’

‘Money won’t solve it’

‘What’s your Alibi?’

‘What’s your alibi!’

We yelled into our mic for the last line and a few in the crowd joined us. I leaned back as to not laugh in the mic. This was both ridiculous and awesome at the same time.

We jumped into the fourth song when three black SUVs pulled up. I snorted. Did they think that only three cars would be enough to handle a crowd of 2,000 teenagers? We chose songs specifically to rile up our fellow classmates. I watched as my father stepped out of the middle vehicle. His Beta stepped out after him. What I was surprised to see was my brother exiting the front SUV with his to-be-Beta, and my sister’s mate.

My father strode up to the group, flanked by the few warriors that piled in with them and I saw him open his mouth. It was now or never. I switched on the back speakers, the precisely angled ones.

‘Ring around the Rosie, pocket full of posy’

‘I’ma fucking blow all the ashes down’

‘Ring around the Rosie, pocket full of posy’

‘I’ma fucking go crazy for ya now’

Vince sang out and I hit my bass drum to the beat with Steph who rocked the bass on this song. I watched as confusion marred his features and then anger as his eyes lit up. Still, there was no movement in the crowd of kids.

It worked. It had fucking worked! I found that the Alpha command needed to be heard in order to actually activate our obedience to our Alpha. You would be surprised the amount of sound we hear but our brain filters it out. Even if something as loud as a concert was going on, usually as long as someone heard even the tiniest peep of command with an Alpha aura mixed in, you had to obey as a pack member. The reason for that was because the command was heard by a certain part of our brains as wolves.

After much trial and error, I found the precise angle and volume needed to force that part of our brain to listen to the music. With that part of our brain already engaged and listening to something, the Alpha Command was left unheard and unheeded.

I saw his face flush as he ordered his men around, but they just encircled our massive group. There wasn’t much they could do. My father grabbed my brother by the shirt and pointed to the stage. He nodded and started to make his way over, followed by his to-be-Beta. A few of the seniors recognized him and when they realized he wasn’t here to join the festivities, they actively got in his way. It was glorious to behold.

‘Ring around the Rosie, pocket full of posy’

‘I’ma fucking go crazy for ya now’

‘Go crazy for ya now’

‘Blow all the ashes down’

As we headed into the fifth and final song, I watched as my brother’s eyes met mine and he realized who was heading up this pop-up concert. I winked at him. The next one started out with a bit of crowd participation, and it wasn’t hard to get them clapping as I put my sticks together and the rest of the band clapped as they sang. Vince came in with the first verse though.

‘All rise if I ever get close to ya’

‘All eyes on my every move now’

‘Whoa oh oh oh, whoa oh-oh’

My brother finally made it to our little stage and as he stepped up, I locked eyes with him. The brunt of my Alpha aura that I had been holding back slammed into him. He stepped back for a moment, wide-eyed and frozen in place.

I smirked. ‘Keep him there, Raine, we are almost done.‘

My wolf laughed and skipped around. ‘Alright. I’ll try not to hurt him.’

Rolling my eyes, I tore my eyes away from him but continued to allow my aura to bloom around us.

‘Come on, you can try to come at me’

‘In a second, you'll be wondering what's happening’

‘Whoa oh oh oh, whoa oh-oh’

‘Whoa oh oh oh, whoa oh-oh’

As the ‘whoa’s’ started I leaned into my mic and they leaned back.

“My fellow classmates, thank you so much for joining our concert. We, as Dark Failure, appreciate your souls!” I looked at my brother and smirked. “Right now, we are surrounded by a few warriors as well as our Alpha, however, you have one minute to scatter without being caught. I suggest you take it. We live to enjoy another day! Scatter!”

I shouted out the last word as Vince stepped up to the mic.

‘On your knees and you're begging for mercy’

‘Your own blood tells you that you're unworthy’

‘Whoa oh oh oh, whoa oh-oh’

It was a mass exodus. It’s like we were born to break the rules and not get caught. The entire school moved in a cohesive mass to their cars in the parking lot, just behind the field we were playing. They climbed the waist-high fence and kids piled into the backs of the pickup trucks if they didn’t have cars. It was beautiful.

‘Everybody's gonna see, gonna see’

‘Bow down, bow down’

‘This is my destiny, destiny’

‘Here comes a king’

I leaned into the mic and started to sing with Vince, taking over the vocals at the end. All three of them looked at me and I smiled, nodding. The lack of students allowed some of the warriors to move closer to us as we had already planned for. The three of them put their instruments down and headed out behind us, the escape path already memorized and practiced. I was the last one, until the very last ‘you can call me king.’

Once the song finished, I put my sticks down on the floor tom and sighed.

‘You can let him go, Raine. It’s all good.’

With that, my eyes darkened to their usual chestnut brown and I stretched, my ass hurting from bouncing on the stupid school drum seat. It was nowhere near as comfortable as my own set.

“What the fuck, Skylar? What the hell was this?”

I smirked. “Whatever are you taking about?”

He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. “Come on, Dad wants you. You are in deep shit.”

Getting up, I walked over to him. Looking up at him, I pursed my lips. “Not all of us get special treatment, Caleb. I’ve been wading through deep shit my entire life.”

Shoulder checking his arm, he didn’t really move, considering he was six foot four to my five foot seven, but I figured it got the message across. A walked past his Beta who had his arms crossed over his chest. “Alpha is pissed. You’re gonna get it.”

“Fuck off, Greg. No one wants to hear you open your mouth.” I growled as I passed by him.

I quickened my steps as I saw my father berating my other brother. His head was down and his hands in his pockets. Emmett was only seven months older than me and so we just considered ourselves twins. We looked close enough that if I cut my hair, we probably could pass for each other.

“You!” My father snarled at me as he saw me getting closer. “What the hell do you think you were doing?”