Tangled

Ava: Challenging Common Knowledge

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?”

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38 Ava: Challenging Common Knowledge

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.

I groan, resting my forehead on my hand as Selene

tomson a homb on the antiro ranking hiararahu of

2/8

Challenging

shifters.

one. I

in my head gives me

wolves refer to our ranks, I protest.

they?

strong I can almost feel it in 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

Selene’s telling me the entire history of

It is.

I know I don’t want to

Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and

why I didn’t tell

any of

deep breath. Explain it to

***

ago, wolves and humans lived in

14:56

3/8

Challenging Common Knowledge

Great Wolves, Lycans, were respected and

they were, grew tired of the constant bloodshed waged in their names. They

realm.

Lycans, in their wisdom and loyalty, agreed to be sacrificed to ensure the gods‘

my mind. To give up one’s life, even for a god–that’s

magic, seeking to bring the Lycan souls back from the realm between life

Lycan souls merging with human bodies. But such a violation

14:54

A/B

Challenging Common

could not

what comes next in

tale.

descended upon the magicians and their descendants. The returned Lycan souls, enraged by the betrayal, consumed them. Over time, these souls developed their own identity, working in harmony with the souls

I’ve been taught. Shifters, cursed? It goes against everything I know. We are blessed by the moon goddess,

based on their unique history. And that, little one, is the true origin of our

leaving me in a stunned silence. It’s a lot to take in, this alternate history. Part of me wants to reject it, to cling to the familiar stories I’ve grown up

14:54

5/8

Ava: Challenging Common Knowledge

But-

does this have to do

than what they’ve told you. You are not an omega. You are a descendant of the original magicians, a