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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Challenging Common Knowledge

shifters.

one. I

in my head gives me no

to our ranks, I

they?

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 work now. But they were not always so.

the entire history of

It is.

Somehow, I know I don’t

to access chapters of novels early and in

is why I didn’t

any of

breath. Explain it

***

and humans lived

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Challenging Common Knowledge

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

they were, grew tired of the constant

realm.

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

is heavy in my mind. To give up one’s life, even

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

born, weakened Lycan souls merging with human

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A/B

Ava: Challenging

order could not

my breath, dreading what comes next in

tale.

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

goes against everything I know. We are blessed by the moon

shifters. They formed their own packs, their own traditions and values, based on their unique history. And that, little one, is the true origin of our kind. Two

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

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Ava: Challenging

But-

have to do with

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 your own