One Night With My Alpha Professor
One Night 244

Chapter 244 Edwin

I stared down at the reports in front of me and felt a surge of anger bubble up in my chest.

"You're sure that this is what's happening?" I asked, glancing up at my Beta. "There's no way you were mistaken?" Charles pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair. That was all the answer I needed.

I smacked my hand on the desk and looked away, clenching my teeth so tightly I thought they might *c*ck. My Beta remained silent, waiting for the storm to pass before he said anything else.

I couldn't shoot the messenger, of course. But the reports that Charles just brought back to me were enough to make my blood boil with fury.

I

According to our recent investigations into orphanages around Crescent territory, we discovered something... unsettling, to say the least. Apparently, it was commonplace for orphanages to commission-that's right, commission-human children to undeserving families.. Such as the family that Audrey was adopted into.

Since human children were often passed over when it came to adoption, I supposed that orphanages grew desperate. So, back in the nineties, a few orphanages started giving incentives to people who were interested in adopting. Adopt a human kid completely under the table-no paperwork, no background check, no money, no wellness checks, nothing.

101.

for.

exchange, use that child for whatever you wanted, whether it was for cleaning your house or working odd jobs to make ra money for the family or welfare checks or... I didn't want to think about what other things those kids would be used And what was required of the adoptive guardians, you may ask?

Nothing but a small percentage of whatever they earned off of that child.

A strange business model, certainly. But when an orphanage is pawning off dozens of human kids to greedy families every week, the profits add up. "Alpha?" Charles finally dared to speak up.

I

I shook my head, snapping myself out of my spiraling thoughts. Now was not the time to be lamenting over what was happening to those kids-what had happened to my mate. Right now, something needed to be done about this. Quickly.

"I just can't believe this has been happening right under my nose," I growled, shuffling through the pile of papers my Beta had just plopped on my desk-receipts, documents, letters, all proving that this had been going on for decades. Charles sighed. "It's been going on well before you became Alpha," he said. "Long enough for these creeps to get really good at hiding their **hit. Don't beat yourself up over it."

No, but I'd like to beat my good-for-nothing father up over it, I thought bitterly. I wondered if he knew that this had been going on under his leadership, but it was no matter now. I was going to put an end to it. "What should we do?" Charles asked, c****ng his head.

I leaned back in my chair, considering my options. There was one obvious way to go about this: put all of the corrupt

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orphanages out of business and move the existing kids to better ones. We would have to try and track down any of the sh***ty families that had human kids in their 'care', too, and get the kids the hell out of there.

But we would be displacing a lot of kids by doing that. Uprooting their lives when they'd already been through enough. Siblings might get split up by accident in the frenzy. Children would be ripped from their friends and everyone they knew.

And then what? Cram them into the few reputable establishments that were left? Judging from the looks of things, the problem was rampant; I could only count the number of uncorrupt orphanages on one hand, and even if those orphanages weren't taking part in this awful scheme, there could be other issues. "I'm... not sure," I finally answered.

Charles frowned. "Perhaps we could send any warriors we have who aren't actively dealing with the remnants of the Coldclaw situation and send them to intimidate the orphanage directors. Fine them royally, then threaten them with being shut down if they continue the practice." "That doesn't feel like enough," I said more quietly than I would have liked.

My Beta didn't argue with that. My own mate had been one of the children who was, unbeknownst to her, thrust into this corrupt system. Those adoptive parents of hers were sending checks back to the orphanage every month.

And as shocking as it sounded, Audrey was actually one of the lucky ones. I loathed to imagine what some of the other kids went through. What sort of horrors they endured for the sake of making a bunch of adults a bunch of money.

"We need to root out the problem from the source," I mused, dragging a hand through my hair. "But we also can't just shut down the orphanages, because we'll be displacing too many kids"

"Then we arrest the orphanage directors and appoint new ones," Charles suggested.

nodded. "That's a

1. We'll

"As

a good start. Get together a group of warriors and get as many of the corrupt directors into custody as you

I go after the adoptive guardians next."

s for the directors' replacements?" Charles asked.

I shut my eyes for a thinking.

We couldn't just hire strangers, not this quickly. We'd need time to get the a

then perform interviews and background checks on the candidates, which could take months.

"I need to think on it. For now, round up a task force of qualified pack members to get started on the hiring process as soon as possible," I finally said. "Ask Silverbite for help, too. Claudia will likely oversee it if need be. She'll want to know, anyway, since her own daughter was part of the f the system." Charles nodded solemnly and rose from his chair. The mention of Audrey was enough to set us both on edge. "You're going to tell Audrey, too?" Charles asked softly.

I grit my teeth and nodded. "I have no choice. She deserves to know."

As my Beta left, I sank lower into my chair, my heart pounding in my chest. Audrey did deserve to know, and I was going to tell her as soon as I saw her, but... the thought of seeing the pain on her face, of feeling that pain through our bond when I did tell her, was nearly enough to make me sick to my stomach,

For years, my mate had suffered as part of a system designed solely to take advantage of humans. And it wasn't even the orphanages or the ***ty families that was the issue-it was our entire ***n society.

Humans were treated like s***m. Looked down upon. Always pushed into roles of servitude, even as children.

It was a problem that I'd tried to mitigate over the years, of course. Since becoming Alpha, I'd come up with welfare programs to help humans, provided scholarships, founded charities, and even did my best to ensure that humans had equal employment opportunities.

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it wasn't enough. Because I didn't look deeply enough. And thanks to my own oversight, I'd missed a glaring societal issue that had been right under my nose for years.

As I considered this, my eyes flicked to the drawing Audrey had made as a little girl-the fashion sketch that I'd taken from her room and framed and kept on my desk.

AST

She was so innocent despite everything that happened to her, and it showed in the linework in that drawing. The careful strokes, the parts that had been erased and redone and erased again, the crumpled corners of the paper.

She hadn't deserved what had happened to her in that house. She hadn't deserved the neglect, and it could have been stopped if only my father-the Alpha at the time-had just noticed.

But I wasn't my father. I was going to get to the bottom of this issue, and I was going to ensure that no more little Audreys had to suffer like that.

And

id I knew we'd do it together.

I just had to break the news first.

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