CHAPTER 10: HOPING FOR A MIRACLE

DANIEL'S POV

"Tell me you found a way."

The moment I walked into the conference room, those were the first words out of my mouth.

Beta Mason didn't even bother looking up from his tablet.

"No I didn't."

I cursed under my breath.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

The tension inside the room was suffocating.

Three executives sat around the table.

Two legal advisers.

My Beta and I. The Alpha whose entire empire was slowly collapsing.

Seven years ago, I would have laughed if someone told me I'd end up here.

Desperate and begging for help.

Yet here I was.

Mason finally looked up.

"The attack happened again last night."

I clenched my jaw.

"By the goddess"

"Three more servers were compromised."

"Do you have any good news?"

"Two clients terminated their contracts."

My wolf growled.

"Stop repeating bad news Mason."

The Beta sighed.

The sound held more exhaustion than frustration.

"We're running out of time."

Silence followed.

Because everyone in the room knew he was right.

For the past eighteen months, someone had been systematically destroying my security company digitally.

Every firewall we built got breached.

Every system we installed got compromised.

Every solution we offered got exposed.

Clients were leaving.

Investors were panicking.

Competitors were circling like vultures and no matter how much money I threw at the problem, it never stopped.

The attacks always came.

Like whoever was behind them could see every move before we made it.

I rubbed my face.

"Contact her again."

Mason stared at me.

"Daniel."

"Do it."

"We already tried."

"Try again."

His expression hardened.

"She isn't responding."

My chest tightened.

The Hacker Goddess.

The one person in the world capable of fixing this.

The one person every government, billionaire and corporation wanted access to.

The woman whose name alone made elite hackers nervous.

Nobody knew her face.

Nobody knew where she lived.

Nobody knew her real identity.

Only that if she agreed to help you, your problems disappeared.

And if she refused?

You were on your own.

I had spent nine years trying to reach her and she had rejected every request.

At first, I offered money, then influence, then partnerships, then blank checks but nothing worked.

She ignored them all.

Mason dropped a folder onto the table.

"I contacted her representatives yesterday."

I immediately sat up.

"And?"

"They rejected us."

"Again?"

"Again."

I laughed bitterly and opened the folder.

The response was only one sentence.

The Goddess is unavailable.

My jaw tightened.

Unavailable.

For nine years.

Apparently.

One of the executives cleared his throat.

"Alpha..."

I looked at him.

"What?"

"Maybe it's time to consider other options."

I stared.

Then laughed.

A cold humorless sound.

"Other options?"

"Yes."

I leaned forward.

"Name one."

Silence.

Nobody had one because there wasn't one.

The Hacker Goddess wasn't simply the best, she was in a league of her own.

Every cybersecurity conference talked about her.

Every intelligence agency wanted her.

Every major corporation tried hiring her.

Yet nobody could reach her unless she wanted to be reached.

Mason broke the silence.

"You've been pursuing this for years."

I looked at him.

"So?"

"So why?"

The room went quiet.

I knew what he was asking.

Everybody did.

Why was I so obsessed?

Why did I refuse to give up?

Why had I spent nearly a decade trying to secure a meeting?

The answer was simple.

Because nine years ago, before anyone knew the name Hacker Goddess, I'd seen her work.

Just once.

One impossible night.

A security system nobody should have been able to breach had collapsed in under five minutes.

Encrypted databases had been dismantled.

Protected networks exposed.

Entire infrastructures rewritten.

I'd watched it happen.

Watched a ghost tear through systems that should have been untouchable.

I never forgot it because genius recognizes genius and whoever she was...

She was the most gifted hacker I'd ever encountered.

I looked at Mason.

"Because she's the only one who can save us."

The words tasted like poison but they were true.

My Beta leaned back.

"Then what?"

"What do you mean?"

"What happens if she keeps refusing?"

For the first time in years, I genuinely didn't know what to do.

My phone suddenly vibrated.

I glanced at the screen.

Then froze.

A notification.

My assistant.

I answered immediately.

"What?"

"Alpha..."

Her voice sounded nervous.

"Say it."

"We received a response."

My pulse jumped.

From who?

Then I already knew.

The Hacker Goddess.

I shot to my feet.

The entire room became silent.

"What did she say?"

Another pause.

Then:

"She agreed to review the proposal."

The room exploded.

People started talking.

Questions flew everywhere.

I barely heard any of them.

Because after nine years...

Nine damn years...

I'd finally gotten closer than a rejection email.

Mason grabbed my arm.

"Daniel."

I looked at him.

A grin spread across his face.

"The Goddess finally answered."

For the first time in months, hope surged through me.

"Set up the meeting."

"We don't have a date yet."

"Then get one."

"Daniel…we can't get so excited because a document review isn't a meeting. "

"I don't care what it costs or how you do it."

My voice echoed through the room.

"I want that meeting."

Nobody argued but they all stared at me like I'd gone bunkers and maybe I had but I didn't really care about anybody's perception of my person right now.

Everything I'd spent years building would all disappear without help and the only person capable of preventing that had finally acknowledged my existence.

I sat back down.

My heart was still pounding.

I exhaled in relief. 

Mason studied me.

"You're really betting everything on this woman."

I looked at the rejection letters stacked inside the folder.

Nine years of continuous refusal to even acknowledge my existence. 

Then I laughed softly.

"No."

My Beta frowned.

"What?"

I looked out the window.

At the city beyond.

At the future hanging by a thread.

"I'm betting everything on a miracle."

And for the first time in nine years...

The miracle might finally be listening.