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

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Ava: Challenging Common

shifters.

one. I hear

in my head gives me no

refer to our ranks, I protest. Don’t

they?

there is too much history to go through. Yes, the weak wolves of today’s

me the entire history of shifters is

It is.

I know I don’t want

access chapters of novels

I didn’t tell you anything before.

any of

Explain it

***

humans lived

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Ava: Challenging Common Knowledge

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

human, war eventually came. The gods, fickle beings that they were, grew tired of the constant bloodshed waged in their names. They decided to flee this world, to find

realm.

Lycans, in their wisdom and loyalty, agreed to be sacrificed to ensure the gods‘ safe departure. Their souls were to guide and protect the

The word is heavy in my mind. To give up one’s life, even for a god–that’s a

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

were born, weakened Lycan souls merging

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A/B

Challenging Common Knowledge

order could not go unpunished.

breath, dreading what comes next

tale.

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

reconcile this with the history I’ve been taught. Shifters, cursed? It goes against everything I know. We

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

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

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Ava: Challenging Common

But-

does this have to do with

you 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