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.

forehead on my hand as Selene tosses a bomb on the

one. I

head gives me no privacy

our wolves refer to our ranks, I protest.

is too much history to go through. Yes, the weak wolves of today's shifters have accepted this, as this is how your packs work now. But they were not always

Selene's telling me the entire history of

It is.

don't want to hear any of

why I didn't tell you anything

breath. Explain it to

* * *

lived in harmony, Selene begins, her voice a soothing rumble in my mind. The Great Wolves,

of the constant bloodshed waged in their names. They decided

wisdom and loyalty, agreed to be sacrificed to ensure the gods' safe departure. Their souls were to guide and protect the

To give up one's life, even for a god—that's a level of devotion I can't

magic, seeking to

the first shifters were born, weakened Lycan souls merging with human bodies. But such a violation of the natural order could

my breath, dreading what comes

consumed them. Over time, these souls developed their own identity,

goes against everything I know. We are blessed by the

their own traditions and values, based on their unique history. And that, little one, is

me in a stunned silence. It's a lot to take in, this alternate history.

But—

does this have to do

means, Ava, that you are more than what they've told you. You are not an omega. You are a descendant of

mean

Of course.

elaborate, but she doesn't. "But