The following day, Wilson called in sick for Carlos as well. Compared to yesterday, the high faded and left only a stinging mess all over his skin. Every time Carlos shifted his position, it hurt.

Wilson was expecting this. The pain would subside in a day or two after the scene if proper aftercare treatment was carried out. In fact, the lone wolf didn’t make any plans for scenes today. All he wanted was to take care of Carlos. Right from the time Carlos woke up, Wilson hovered over him constantly, fussing over just about everything from his minor muscle aches to the tender skin.

Carlos didn’t know why he was given VIP treatment today. Not only did he not need to attend class, but Wilson was also pampering him to a point where he was going to rot. From the very moment he opened his eyes, Wilson already took care of his needs. He helped Carlos shower without any funny business, took care of cleaning the room while Carlos ate the breakfast he brought up, applied salve on the areas that hurt, and gave the cheetah a thorough full body massage.

It was slightly scary how Wilson serviced him. Carlos never had this luxury, even when he was a young master back in the main house. If anything, the treatment made him feel at a loss. He didn’t have to do anything. Wilson even brushed his fur, and Carlos couldn’t understand why the wolf was so nice. Weren’t they enemies?

“What’s wrong?” the werewolf asked when he felt Carlos staring at him from the bed. The cheetah was currently lying on his stomach, resting.

“Why are you so nice?” Carlos asked. There was no way Wilson wasn’t suspicious!

The lone wolf smirked. “You prefer it more when I stalk you and drag you by the collar to Preeta?”

Carlos snarled at that. Not too long ago, that was their relationship - a troublemaker and a watcher. However, after the stupid bet, things were changing, and Carlos was afraid. What will happen when the bet is over?

Seeing how deep in thoughts the werecat was, Wilson left him alone and focussed on finishing his assignments. Ruo Han’s silencing talisman worked really well, and he owed the cultivator one. Shen Long and Ruo Han were an alpha couple. Could it be possible between him and Carlos?

“What are you doing?” Carlos asked as he got up from the bed. Lying in here all day wasn’t going to help him find any answers. Rather than agonising over the unstable future, Carlos preferred indulging in the present.

“Homework. If you’re well enough to get out of bed, you should do yours too.”

The boring answer made Carlos roll his eyes. Yet, the cheetah obediently pulled out his assignments and started reading up on what he missed. They spent the afternoon and evening amiably like this. Occasionally, Carlos would ask some questions about the paragraphs he didn’t understand, and Wilson would teach him with incredible patience.

“Don’t you hate me?” the question blurted out over dinner. Carlos couldn’t stop it, and Wilson was surprised.

“No? We might be natural-born enemies, but I’m not prejudiced over that. I dislike you at first because I hated how privileged you were as an alpha. On the surface, it didn’t look like you had to work for anything. You had everything simply fall into your lap, including the Chavez Clan. On the other hand, my clan was wiped out, and I had to struggle to prove myself as an alpha among the werewolf community.”

Surprised, Carlos decided to push it further. He never thought he would have the opportunity to hear Wilson talk about his mysterious past.

“Can I ask if it is true?”

“What’s true?”

Carlos hesitated. After they’ve done so much, asking for a little more details should be fine, right?

“The rumours that you killed your clan.”

Wilson put the pen down. He faced Carlos, and the werecat stilled. Was he going to get punched for asking an overly personal question?

“What about you?” Wilson countered a question with a question. “Why are you so afraid? Your reactions told me you lived through abuse, contrary to your carefree and irresponsible young master image. I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”

For a while, they were locked in a stalemate, with neither person answering any questions. Carlos was the first to give in. What did he have to lose?

“You can say that I was abused in a way. However, I’ll call it trauma. Growing up as the Chavez heir isn’t as easy as what you said. Sure, the other candidates died one after another, and I landed the heir’s position despite my incompetence. However, they never once treated me as the heir. I was simply a hostage and a puppet in that house.”

Wilson didn’t make any remarks or ask any questions as Carlos recalled what happened when he was younger. There were six werecat heirs sent to the Chavez House to compete against each other for the position of the heir. Naturally, the dirty politics by every house caused a lot of competition. The more the heirs stood out in their accomplishments, the more they became targeted.

“However, I would always be implicated even if I wasn’t harmed. As I was the weakest of the children sent to the house, it was easy for them to take out their frustrations on me. Anything that I liked would get taken away. Anything important would be destroyed. I had no family to back me up, and my sister was the only reason I stayed. She was competent, but if she were sent to that hell hole, her future would be destroyed.”

Wilson listened without saying a thing as Carlos revealed how he was threatened, blackmailed, beaten up and humiliated by the other heroes. Then, he recalled how he was kidnapped along with the other children and witnessed their tortures as someone who was just on the scene.

“Back then, I thought I was really going to die,” Carlos admitted. Wilson sat beside him and linked tails. “They beat him up so badly that the blood flowed over to my side of the room. When he stopped moving, they came over. I was so terrified at that time and didn’t know what to do. However, when I opened my eyes again, there was a lot of blood everywhere. I don’t recall much, but the Chavez guards found us. The other boy died while I survived.”

That was the first incident that created a trigger in Carlos. No wonder Amanda said that his second gender couldn’t be changed. It was too deeply rooted in the trauma Carlos suffered as a child. He might not have many capabilities, but his instincts as an alpha were unmistakable.

“My sister is really capable,” Carlos sighed. “It’s too bad she wasn’t born a male. However, my family is taking very good care of her. Under her leadership, our family has grown considerably, so the Chavez House will not be able to bully them. The other clans who lost their heir will also not try anything funny. Since I am the rightful heir to the Chavez House, the other clans cannot do anything to my family. However, I honestly don’t want to be the heir. It would be best if my sister ran the Chavez House and the clan instead.”

Wilson didn’t speak after Carlos finished. He thought it over. After what Carlos shared, the lone wolf could understand better where the playboy facade came from. If he was a useless heir, the other clans would vote for an advisor to rule the Chavez House. Carlos was trying to push his sister into the position by acting dumb. What a move!

“If you became my Luna, you don’t have to worry about that. I can make your sister accepted as the official heir of the Chavez House.”

Carlos laughed at the claim and rolled onto the bed, wincing a little when the sheets came in contact with his sensitive skin.

“And how will you do that?”

Wilson didn’t say much. He simply brought out a device and connected it. “Are you familiar with this technology?”

Carlos took a look at the smartphone and nodded. It was something that humans often used. In fact, the Chavez Clan had dealings with the manufacturer of such goods. It was rare to have a device like this in the Time Cross Academy that worked.

“How is this working here?” he asked, and Wilson smirked.

“It’s mana powered. Also, I worked with the archmages to develop this.”

One second. Two seconds. Wilson waited for Carlos’ reaction as the cheetah’s brain worked on overdrive.

“You mAdE this?!”

Wilson chuckled. Carlos gaped for a few minutes before bringing his senses back. “You made this?! You’re that Wolf from the Tech Valley? That one and only eligible alpha that everyone wants to marry, but nobody has seen before?! You???”

“Yes, me. Don’t go around telling everyone. You’re lucky we have Ruo Han’s soundproofing talisman. Does that answer your question? I can make the Chavez House bow to my demands and make your sister the official heir. With my backing, you can have the world if you wanted.”

There was one thing Carlos didn’t understand. “Wait, how is that related to your bloody past? Also, why me? You can have anyone as your Luna with your influence. Unless you’re lying.”

He knew it was difficult to convince Carlos to accept his proposal. After all, it was weird for the very eligible and powerful bachelor to want a male Luna. In fact, it was frowned upon in the werewolf community for Lunas to be male even if they were omegas. However, Wilson didn’t want to find just anyone. If he wanted to repopulate his clan, he could employ an omega for that. What he wanted was a capable life partner, loyal and compatible with him—one who could satisfy his desires and fight with him as an equal.

“I tried,” he told the baffled werecat. “However, none of them met my standards. You also know how I’m like in the bedroom. Do you think omegas or ladies will be able to hold up? Also, I don’t just want any kind of men. I want one who isn’t a gold digger, who is completely honest, loyal and will fight for what he thinks is right. I’ll admit, I didn’t have the best opinions of you, but after seeing your vulnerabilities and the werecat behind that playboy act, I grew to like you. For me, you will make a very good Luna.”

Carlos didn’t know what to say. On top of being very considerate, good at bed and capable, Wilson was also rich and reliable. Who in their right mind would reject him? Then again, all this came too suddenly, and Carlos needed some time to think about it. Sure, he might want Wilson fucking him senseless but becoming a werewolf’s Luna was something scarier than that.

“I-I can’t give you an answer now.”

Wilson snorted. “Didn’t expect you to. Think about it. We have a lot of time before we graduate. Heck, if things work out, we could even screen through the omegas that we want to employ to repopulate my clan. You can do the same.”

Thoroughly shocked by the news, Carlos tried to distract himself. “You still have not told me about your past. Are those rumours true?”

The change of topic spoiled Wilson’s mood. His eyes grew cold as he told Carlos the summary of what happened back then.

“Yes, I killed them. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Werewolves are weak to silver. It’s common knowledge. However, what is not common knowledge is that silver mixed with something else can become a soul-erasing drug that turns us into complete monsters from horror stories. My family was a victim of the holy empire who used that sickening drug to turn them into mindless monsters and weapons for the church. I had to end them myself after I was given the order by the werewolf community. It was either that or getting branded as a traitor.”

Carlos gasped. How horrible!

Wilson’s story didn’t end there. After killing his family, the werewolf community didn’t reward him or praise him. Instead, they outcast him as a lone wolf. No packs wanted him, and Wilson was given the title of the omega and the shame of the clan for not dying with his family when he killed them. It was a sick mentality, and Carlos hugged Wilson as he told the werecat how he was kicked to the human realm.

“It could be a blessing in disguise to be kicked to the human world. There, I learned very quickly and developed the technology that humans loved. I made a lot of money, got the things I needed, but the chance encounter with an archmage changed my life. I started working on developing magic communication tools and succeeded. The rest you would know from the story of the Wolf from the Valley. Amanda and I have been work partners for a while. It was her idea for me to take a break and enrol in her Academy to find my Luna. I guess she saw this coming when she sent me that invitation. They say that she wasn’t the witch of the red thread for no reason.”

Carlos agreed. Many unlikely couples were formed in the Academy, and they could be the next. However, Carlos wanted to retreat a few steps for now. He didn’t want to think too far about becoming somebody’s Luna or mate.

“Let’s not talk about that for now,” he said. “Tomorrow is the last day of the bet. What are you going to do?”

Wilson blinked. “I was originally going to let you rest. Your body has gone through a lot in the past few days. Did you have something in mind?”

Carlos bit his lower lips. Then, he looked into those obsidian eyes.

“I want you to sleep with me. No toys, no scenes, just sleep with me.”

Wilson wanted to ask why, but he held his tongue.

“Alright. Let’s do that tomorrow.”