Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Voren and Corvine followed the plan exactly the way they had mapped it out earlier, because the moment Corvine dropped Seraphine off at Santiago’s estate, he immediately turned the vehicle around and drove back to retrieve Voren.

Just as they had expected, none of the guards bothered performing a second inspection when the car returned through the gate, mostly because they had already searched it once and saw no reason to waste their time doing it again.

Even if they had gone through the trouble of checking the vehicle a second time, they still would not have found Voren or his FBI contact because both men had hidden themselves so carefully that nobody would have suspected they were there.

After Corvine was directed toward Santiago’s garage, which was packed with rows of luxury vehicles, he remained seated in silence while forcing himself to stay calm even though the pressure sitting on his chest was becoming harder to ignore with every passing second.

The entire garage smelled like polished leather, gasoline, and cold metal, while the expensive cars lined up around him made the place feel less like a parking area and more like some billionaire’s private showroom.

All he could do was sit there and wait for the signal from Seraphine.

Thankfully, it did not take long before his phone vibrated in his pocket, causing his pulse to jump instantly because the message he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

The network was about to be destroyed.

Corvine wasted no time forwarding the message to Voren before quickly pulling out his phone and calling Leon.

The call connected almost immediately.

"Sera said she told you to arrange ambulances," Corvine said without wasting time.

Leon let out a frustrated sound from the other end of the line. "It’s ridiculous because I still don’t understand what she needs twenty ambulances for."

Corvine leaned back slightly in his seat, his jaw tightening as he stared at the ceiling above him. "She’s having dinner with Santiago while preparing to tear his entire operation apart, so what exactly do you think she plans to do?"

For a moment, Leon said nothing, but Corvine heard him suck in a breath before movement echoed through the background of the call, making it obvious that he was already grabbing his things and heading out of the house.

"Expect us in fifteen minutes," Leon said before ending the call.

Barely two minutes passed before the entire network crashed. No calls could go through, no text messages could be sent, and no security cameras were functioning.

No phones had a signal. The entire fortress had just been cut off from the outside world, and for the first time since arriving there, Corvine felt like they might actually have a chance of pulling this off.

He climbed out of the vehicle and moved quickly through the garage after quietly taking care of the few guards stationed nearby, because none of them expected trouble to come from someone they had already allowed through the gates.

Once the area was clear, Corvine opened the hidden compartment.

Voren climbed out first with an unreadable look on his face, while Stanley followed behind him looking far less certain about everything that was happening.

"This better work," Stanley muttered while brushing imaginary dust from his jacket. "Because if we get caught, whoever is trapped in there is never making it back out."

Voren turned his head toward him so quickly that Stanley immediately looked like he regretted saying anything at all.

"That will not happen," Voren said in a cold voice that left no room for argument. "I gave her my word, and if it comes down to it, I will trade my life for hers without thinking twice."

Corvine glanced toward him for a second, something tightening painfully inside his chest because there had been moments when he wondered if Voren’s loyalty to Seraphine came from his financial investment in MindNest or from genuine feelings.

Now he understood that the answer had never been about business. Voren cared about her far more than he ever allowed himself to admit.

None of that mattered right now though, because they were standing in the middle of what could turn into a massacre at any moment.

"The network is jammed, which means the cameras are down and no cell phones are working," Corvine said while looking toward the different exits around the garage. "If you can get your men to cover the exits, then they need to do it now because the hostages should start coming out soon."

Stanley stared at him with disbelief written all over his face. "You seriously believe that?" he asked. "We’ve sent trained agents into that place before, and not a single one of them ever made it back alive."

Something cold settled inside Corvine when he heard that, because even though he believed in Seraphine, hearing how many people had already failed inside that fortress still made fear crawl into the back of his mind.

At the same time, he knew Seraphine was unlike anyone else.

She wasn’t weak nor helpless, and neither was she the type of woman who sat around waiting for someone else to save her. She was a she-wolf, a Luna.

Before Corvine could say anything in response, Voren stepped in first.

"If she succeeds tonight, then you should pay her a billion dollars," he said flatly.

Stanley looked horrified. "Where exactly am I supposed to get that kind of money from?"

"Then keep your mouth shut if you have nothing useful to contribute," Voren replied, sounding more annoyed than angry.

Corvine almost smiled because it felt good knowing he was not the only person growing tired of Stanley’s endless negativity.

A few seconds later, the sound of rushing footsteps echoed through the garage as five bodyguards stormed into the area with weapons in their hands, but none of them managed to get very far because Corvine and Voren took them down before they even understood what was happening.

Their bodies hit the floor one after another while Corvine quickly stripped them of their weapons before running toward the hidden exit.

Even though Santiago had men stationed all over the fortress, they would all eventually gather in the same area once the chaos upstairs reached its peak.

Corvine was only a few feet away from the tunnel when one of the guards spotted him and reached for his gun.

Before the man could even raise it properly, Voren fired first.

The guard dropped instantly.

Corvine released a shaky breath, it felt like a pack war, except that this time, they could not shift to wolf form but instead rely on guns.

He hurried toward the tunnel entrance, where darkness stretched out ahead of him without a single sound coming from the other side.

"Is anybody there?" he called out, his voice echoing faintly through the narrow space.

Nothing answered him. The silence that followed felt unbearable.

Corvine turned back toward Voren, his nerves beginning to crack under the weight of the uncertainty surrounding them. "Do we wait here?"

"What if the plan failed?" Stanley asked nervously, but the second he saw the cold expression on Voren’s face, he immediately regretted speaking. "Sorry," he added quickly.

"Corvine, stay here," Voren said while gripping his gun tightly. "The second you see any sign of movement, get Leon and—"

He stopped speaking the moment all of them heard it. "Is it what I’m thinking?"