Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 38 Ava: Challenging Common Knowledge

What do you mean?

Selene sighs in my mind, a little huff that brings a picture to my mind's eye of her resting her chin on her front paws. I miss her.

You are not an omega, she finally says. Omegas don't exist.

I tilt my head. It isn't that I don't believe Selene, it's just that… well, I mean, how do omegas not exist? All shifters have ranks, once they come into adulthood.

Well—I never got a rank, because I didn't have a rank. But everyone else has one.

Selene growls. Omegas were created for the pleasure of the alphas of old, who wanted nothing more than to breed and dominate. It was a different time.

I talk out loud, because I'm giving myself a headache by thinking too hard at her. "What about the 'true omegas' they're talking about?"

There is no true omega. There are only shifters with powerful heat cycles. Some of them were known to breed strong alpha pups. Wolves and humans both tend toward the superstitious.

Powerful heat cycles come to powerful she-wolves. It has nothing to do with their arbitrary rankings.

I rub my eyes in frustration. It isn't that I'm not understanding the words she's saying; it's just that nothing is making sense in my head, like we're speaking of a foreign land.

"So they just made up this entire thing, because some strong wolf got really horny during heat?"

Yes.

"How does that even make sense?"

All of these ranks are for human ego. Alphas have always existed, though we did not have a word for them. Even strong betas can be alphas. It isn't a birthright, but a matter of strength and leadership. Strong wolves lead the pack. Weak wolves follow.

It isn't rocket science.

Selene tosses a bomb on the entire ranking hierarchy of

little one. I hear

wolf in my head

refer to our ranks, I protest.

there is too much history to go through. Yes, the weak

like Selene's telling me the entire history of shifters is

It is.

know I don't want to hear

I didn't

take a deep breath. Explain it to me from the beginning,

* * *

begins, her voice a soothing rumble in my mind. The Great Wolves, Lycans, were respected and revered by human magicians. They worked together, each benefiting from the other's

of the constant bloodshed waged in their names. They decided to flee this world, to

the gods' safe departure. Their souls were to guide and protect the gods on

one's life, even for a god—that's a

content with this. They delved into forbidden magic, seeking to bring the Lycan souls back from the realm between life and

Lycan souls merging with human bodies. But

my breath, dreading what comes

betrayal, consumed them. Over time, these

with the history I've been taught. Shifters, cursed? It goes against everything I know. We are blessed by the moon goddess, and given a gift—or

They formed their own packs, their own traditions and values, based

history. Part of

But—

have to

they've told you. You are not an omega. You are a descendant of the original magicians, a being of magic and power

that mean

Of course.

wait for her to elaborate, but she doesn't.