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.

resting my forehead on my hand as Selene tosses a bomb on the entire ranking hierarchy

little one. I

head gives me no privacy at

refer to our ranks, I

Child, there is too much history to go through. Yes, the weak wolves of today's shifters have accepted

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

It is.

Somehow, I know I don't want to hear

is why I didn't tell

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

* * *

in my mind. The Great Wolves, Lycans, were respected and revered by human magicians. They worked together, each

tired of the constant bloodshed waged in their names. They

loyalty, agreed to be sacrificed to ensure the gods' safe

in my mind. To give up one's life, even for a god—that's a level of

were not content with this. They delved into forbidden magic, seeking to bring the Lycan souls back from the realm between life

human bodies. But such a violation of the natural order

hold my breath, dreading what comes next in Selene's

them. Over time, these

goes against everything I know. We are blessed by the moon goddess, and given a gift—or

known as wolf shifters. They formed their own packs, their own traditions and values, based on their unique history. And that,

a stunned silence. It's a lot to take in, this alternate history. Part of me wants to reject it, to cling

But—

does this have to do with

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

that mean I'm

Of course.

for her to elaborate, but