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

little one. I hear your

in my head

to our ranks, I

the room with me. Child, there 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

telling me the entire

It is.

I don't

I didn't tell you

a deep breath. Explain

* * *

Selene begins, her voice a soothing rumble in my mind. The

beings that they were, grew tired of the constant bloodshed waged in their names. They decided to flee this world, to find

to be sacrificed to ensure the gods' safe

To give up one's life, even for a god—that's a level of devotion

with this. They delved into forbidden magic, seeking to

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

dreading what comes next in

souls, enraged by the betrayal, consumed them. Over time, these souls developed their own identity, working in harmony with

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

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

lot to take in, this alternate history. Part of me wants to reject it, to cling to

But—

this have to do

told you. You are not an omega. You are a descendant of the

that mean I'm

Of course.

for her to elaborate, but she doesn't. "But I'm