THE TRUTH HURTS

3 MARCH, WEDNESDAY, CONTINUED

"Luna Bell is on his way, Alpha." Harvey's calm wry smile had returned.

Wait, what?

Marcus hammered his fist into his hands, "Of course! The Rebel from the Rebel Force!"

And then Marcus went fanboy on us. New Leaf Academy hadn't always been Champion of the Inter-high Battle of the Bands. Before last year, New Leaf was usually second runner-up to the Lorent Academy. Unlike New Leaf, which sent 3 to 4 bands to compete every year, the Lorent Academy would only send one band - the legendary Rebel Force, and this band would emerge champion every single year it competed.

"We took home the championship last year because the Rebel Force didn't compete." Harvey confessed.

The Rebel Force was well known for inventive arrangements, an unapologetic rebellious image, and their front man, Rebel. This guy could play multiple instruments, arrange music in mind blowing ways - he had merged Cannon in D with a rock song one year, used an electric violin in another, and when he played the guitar - man, it was inhuman.

"It's like water and lighting." Marcus quoted.

Rebel was very mysterious. He always wore a mask on stage, but this wasn't the mysterious thing since it was an open secret that he was the Young Alpha of the Lorent Pack. What was mysterious was the fact that his other bandmates were never permanent. The Rebel Force was always about Rebel and a bunch of unknown ever-changing members.

"Scary luna was probably so scary he made them cry and quit." EJ postulated.

"I'm sure he made them cry." Fluffy smiled.

"Whatever the case, his band was always skilled. New Leaf Academy created a system to audition and build bands specifically to compete in the Battle of the Bands because of the Rebel Force." Harvey divulge, "We realized we had to pool together the best musicians if we wanted a chance against the Rebel Force."

"If there's anyone who could turn our band around, Rebel would be the guy." Marcus concluded.

"Why didn't you ask him earlier?" Henry glared at me, "Why the hell didn't you get Harv and James into the picture in the first place?"

I think he forgot I wasn't in the picture until yesterday!

"He sounds a little scary." Janice worried.

"He's not!" EJ immediately answered, "He's a lot scary."

"We call him Scary Luna." Fluffy informed everyone with a smile.

Harvey shot them a censuring look, "Alpha James may appear aloof at times, but he is our pack's beloved luna."

Which while wasn't a lie, still felt like quite a stretch, but I decided to play along because Boo really enjoyed messing with Henry, "Yes, my luna is the most gentle and elegant wolf in the world."

"Only in your world, I'm sure." Henry smirked.

"We call him Lovely Luna." Fluffy updated everyone with a smile.

"Right..." Marcus said without hiding his disbelief.

"It's true!" EJ insisted, and then he shook his head and confessed, "No, that's a lie. Nobody calls him Lovely Luna."

Lovely Luna was my mum. Bell was more like... I searched my mind for an adjective: Gorgeous, hot, fierce, terrifying, evil, manipulative, vengeful, complicated, stubborn, stooopid. I did start trying to think of a nice adjective for my Luna, but it just kind of went south after "hot".

But Mate was coming, and just the thought of seeing him made my wolf wag for joy. I'm so glad I wasn't in my wolf form. That would be totally humiliating.

"When's he coming?." Henry asked.

"ETA in 15, Alpha Hen." Harvey smiled.

"That's fast." Marcus remarked.

"He must have raced here to his princess' rescue." Fluffy smiled.

"He happened to be nearby." Harvey said.

"We better run through once more." Henry decided.

"Yeah, let's not make ourselves look more like fools than we have to." Marcus chuffed.

Don't bother Marcus. Bell looked at everyone like fools.

But overall, everyone was suddenly a little more determined. We weren't going to give up. Not yet.

It's not that I thought Bell would be able to make us Battle of the Bands standard or anything. I was perfectly aware that we were barely passable as a band - my gang back home sounded better at any spontaneous jam session than what we sounded like now. But I was banking on the fact that our competition was limited to Winderhill High and that couldn't be too crazy, right? We had a chance, and I fully intended to make the most of it.

We practiced a couple of rounds more, and Harvey helped us rearrange our setup. It was kind of technical - something to do with running an extra cable to bring one of the monitors into the drum shield and then making it so that we could see each other. This way, we would be able to catch each other's visual signals. I imagined this was like the hand signals we learned for trekking/hunting parties.

But we really weren't at the level to deal with signaling. Janice never once looked up from her score sheet when we played. EJ was too into his own performance. And Henry needed to constantly check that he was pressing down on the strings accurately, now that he had learned how.

I think as the sole tambourinist in the group, I was the only one free to observe my bandmates. We were all trying hard. Even Marcus was playing much better - now that he could actually hear us. Unfortunately, now that he could actually hear us, he also no long-held any delusions about how good we sounded.

We were supposed to be the Lash Hurrah, and we didn't sound like the last disaster anymore. But we still sounded more like the Noob Startup. Yeah. That would have been a better name for our band.

But you know, a rose by any other name. The rule applied to weeds too. No matter what our band was called, we still sounded like noobs.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

We were just about to go at it a third time when Boo announced Bell's arrival. Beta Pete must have received the mindlink too because he hastily excused himself to receive guests.

From the way Beta Pete behaved, it was like he was about to go receive the vampire queen herself. Hahaha.

Henry decided it was fine to wait a bit, "James'll probably want to hear us play."

At the realization that Bell was going to see this, I had to admit feeling immense relief that we didn't sound as bad as we could have.

And then Beta Pete threw open the door for him to step in and pose at the entrance, my Luna, in full Lorent Prince mode - stepping in sharply suited, his pale grey jacket resting dapper on his shoulders, his hair slicked back, and one arm kept hidden in a snow white sling.

My first instinct was to pounce on Bell. {Mate! ❤️ } But you know, his arm was in a sling. Grrr...

"Alpha James is here." Ki announced very properly. Ki was his usual self, navy blue suit and all, but now next to Bell, they really looked like a matching pair.

They weren't alone either. Cobra and Owen were with him, at guard position. I guess they were the security detail we assigned to Bell. But unlike Fluffy and EJ who were lounging/bouncing around the room, Cobra and Owen stood like sentinels.

And to make things worse, Stephan and Theo stepped into the room after them, half a dozen warriors at heel.

At the sight of their army captain, Fluffy stood up and EJ stopped bouncing.

Stephan regarded the two clowns sternly for a moment, but then wordlessly flicked his wrist and the warriors fanned out to take guard positions, two of them returning to guard the hallway, another two taking the door, while the last two checked the perimeter of the music room. WTH was this and why did it look more like a hostage situation than a friendly visit?

As if on cue, Henry's red ants paired up to join our warriors, so now the hallway, door, and perimeter of the music room had four warriors. Talk about overkill. Now we had matching blue and red decorative warriors all around the room.

"Sorry to make you rush over from work, James." Henry took this kind of entrance rather casually.

Bell smirked and the two guys exchanged fist bumps, "I was nearby."

I narrowed my eyes at the warriors behind him. Why was my luna outside packlands with Warrior Captains? If I hadn't already wagered Henry's allowance on winning the Talent Time, I would have used it to bet that Bell was up to no good.

"Where exactly nearby?" I asked. In my head, I was running through all the possibilities: We were in the Gold Packlands which was pretty central to everywhere.

Nearby could be Winderhill. I was quite aware that Bell had some unfinished business with Alpha Stephan and the rouges involved in the bomb incident. "Unfinished" because the rogues from the bomb incident, and the underground rogue gang they lured out and caught after that were all still alive in Winderhill's detention facilities.

Nearby could be the Black Packlands - currently under shutdown to contain a rumored civil war and a black curse that had yet to escape into the news. I knew Bell promised Alpha Gunter he would do something - but I wouldn't put it past him if the something he did would be measured and applied to cause maximum suffering within the agreed damages.

Nearby could just as well be the Red Packlands thanks to the cross-continent highway. It currently held the historical record for the longest forest fire. I think they were just going to wait till the Spring rains came or the High Council approved and dispatched emergency help from other Packlands.

Who was I kidding? With Bell's black portal abilities, "nearby" could be as far as the Colored Mountains!

Bell raised a brow at me, two strides and he was next to me. He picked up a lock of my hair and touched it to his lips, "Why, princess? Did you miss me?"

My eyes couldn't stop staring at his mouth and in my head, something exploded and the only thing I could only think of was, "K...kkk...ki...kiss...."

WTH was wrong with me? And why did my face feel so hot? Bell let my hair slip back, and then gently tucked it behind my ear. For a second, his expression softened. I only realized this because it immediately hardened again when he turned to the other guys, "Harv said you guys needed some help?"

"That'll be the understatement of the year." Marcus joked from behind Henry.

"We need to win tomorrow's Talent Time at Winderhill High." Henry said.

"But we're really bad." Fluffy smiled.

"We're so bad we stink more than rotten eggs." EJ declared.

"Will you two shut it?" Henry snapped at the two clowns.

"Better to be hurt by the truth than comforted by a lie, Scary Alpha." Fluffy said, but he was still smiling so it looked like he was messing with Henry.

"Alright, let's hear it." Bell agreed mildly.

So Marcus pretended to give the beat, and then Henry took over with the baseline, and we all fell in line, playing the version cleaned up by Harvey which actually sounded like music. I was very careful not to mess up, only tapping my tambourine at the appointed moments. We actually finished this set without mistakes - which was a milestone in itself. As Beta Pete recorded, he gave up a thumbs up because he knew how far we had come in the last two hours.

When we were done, Bell asked one question, "Why is there a tambourine in this song?"