Claimed by the Primals

Chapter Twenty-One

I could spend all our time listing off the names of Warrick and Kade's siblings as well as the members of their sets that had come as well. Because, yeah, their mates came too. Not all of them. There were two brothers that came alone. I could waste your time and strain my memory so that you could have as accurate a record as possible, just like you want... But I'm not going to. I think even you can agree that that's too much.

What's that? Can I glaze over my intimate moments with Kade and Warrick going forward?

How dare you? Those are the most important parts of the story! How can you possibly get a complete picture of all of the events that transpired without knowing exactly how they made me scream in pleasure every night?

Jesus, fine, moving on. Seriously, you need to lighten up.

So, for simplicity's sake, I'm just going to tell you the important names.

Kade's brothers were Brent, Devon, and Giovanni. Brent was on his own, Devon brought all three of his male mates, Giovanni brought one.

Warrick's sister is Amara, who is currently single, and his brothers were Jad, Nimat, and Aziz. Jad was also mateless, and Aziz brought two of his mates. Nimat was the one who had the female mate, her name was Ravi, and Ravi was noticeably but not extremely pregnant—maybe three or four months—so it was understandable that Nimat and their other mate very rarely left her side.

If you can't remember all that, that's fine. I barely can. I met nineteen fucking people that day, including the parents! My hand and arm were sore after shaking so many hands, and my cheeks were hurting from forcing so much of a smile.

It may surprise you, but once the initial awkwardness of introductions was over, I felt better. I was never the life of the party, but I did always thrive in the chaos of a crowded room. I thought I wanted to be alone with Warrick and Kade and shut out the world. But apparently, I still gravitate towards crowded spaces and socialization. Thank fuck. I felt like so much of me was stuck in limbo of pre- and post-memory wipe that, like Menes said, I didn't really know who I was. I still like people! Go me!

I'm still glad I took the keys, though. Having the option to retreat if I got overwhelmed took so much weight off my shoulders that I was able to actually relax, and I really hit it off with Ravi. Ravi was relatively new to Warrick's side of the family, and this was the first time she had met Kade's, so we were in a similar situation of having a whole lot of new people thrown at us at once. She's also not a member of the Egyptian pantheon, so she was also in the middle of learning all the traditions her two mates were raised in.

The two of us sat in the middle of the larger couch talking, while Nimat sat on her other side and Warrick sat on mine, the two brothers talking over us in Arabic so not to entirely disturb our own conversation since I could only speak English in the gibberish dialect.

I had hoped to meet and get to know Amara at the same time. But she went straight to the kitchen with Esraa, Violet, Kade, and Brent to cook without even a hello. At first, it didn't bother me that much. Amara was nineteen. Ravi and I are much closer in age and stages in our lives. "I was a late bloomer, too," Ravi said excitedly, almost bouncing in her seat. "I was twenty-one when my magic finally kicked in. Late presentations are becoming more and more common, at least where I'm from."

"Jesus, I thought I was just a freak," I laughed. "My sister started presenting the second she turned twelve, and I think my mom was the same."

"So, you have a sister," Giovanni appeared at the back of the couch with a devilish grin plastered across his face. I could tell that Alan wasn't his sire, but he had the same kind of charm that he and Kade had. "Good to know that we have a second shot if we can't tear you away from our ugly duckling of a brother."