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.

little one. I hear

a wolf in my head gives me no privacy at

refer to our ranks, I protest. Don’t

they?

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 so.

Selene’s telling me the entire

It is.

I

to access chapters of novels early and

didn’t tell you

any of

it to

***

and humans lived

14:56

3/8

Challenging Common

Great Wolves, Lycans, were respected and revered by human magicians.

that they were, grew tired of

realm.

agreed to be sacrificed to ensure the gods‘ safe departure. Their souls were to guide and protect the

up one’s life, even for a god–that’s a level of devotion I

some among the human magicians were not content with this. They delved into forbidden magic, seeking to bring the Lycan souls back from the realm between life and death, desiring their

first shifters were born, weakened Lycan souls merging with human bodies.

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A/B

Challenging

order could not go unpunished.

dreading what comes next

tale.

Lycan Curse 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

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

simply known as wolf shifters. They formed their own packs, their own traditions and values, based on

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 with

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5/8

Ava: Challenging Common Knowledge

But-

this 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 in your own