Claimed by the Primals

Chapter Thirty-One

I did not take into account how pissed Thorne would be by me "taking charge" of the resolutions meeting. He was mad to the power of ten. I also didn't realize that by turning this into a Jayden vs Godric battle to the death, that Thorne and his cronies would be forced to be the mediators. In short, Archer Thorne went from being the big man in charge to a glorified babysitter making sure no one from either side starts fighting with each other outside the meetings.

Oops.

Well... at least now the feelings are mutual.

We were able to get him off the hate-train by reminding him that, even if he wasn't in charge, Thorne was probably still going to get a chance to throw his soldiers at a bunch of angels. Depending on how determined Godric was to kill me, there was still probably going to be a war.

I also didn't realize that it would be so much work. When Kade said they would 'coach' me, I didn't think that meant I would be shoved back in a desk and grilled like I was back in school. On top of all the studying, I also had the physical training to deal with, which was... fuck. Now, look, I grew up under Godric's watch. I know a hard workout and I know what it's like. But it's been ten years since I've had to do one. I knew I was out of shape, but damn.

So, for two and a half weeks, my schedule went as followed:

First, morning workout with Kade and Warrick to rebuild my stamina and basic motor control from my time in captivity. I made the terrible mistake of telling them not to go easy on me. I don't think they would have anyway, but the mistake in telling them is that they could throw my words back at me when I started whining. Every morning they dragged me out of bed—sometimes literally—and we went for a run. We ran until I puked. Then we ran back.

When we got back to the hotel, I got to shower and eat as much breakfast as I could before we went to the conference room for hours upon hours of reverse lectures. What's a reverse lecture? Well, instead of one person speaking and a whole class listening, it's one person listening with an entire room full of teachers info-dumping on you. Thorne was particularly harsh, but I can't really blame him after some inexperienced idiot was put in charge of negotiating with an ice-cold psychopath.

It's me. I'm that idiot.

I got a whole new perspective on the angels, though. I got to see financial statements from my father's many holdings, his trade and peace treaties, historical and current... Did you know that the Stryker angels and the Kouris hunters of Lefkada—my mom's clan—had been allies for generations before my parents mated? Yeah, me neither. I guess that answers the question of how they met.

After that, it was back to working out, but in a different kind of way. We were training. With the anubi. And... Fuck me stupid, I could write an entire book on Warrick's extended family.

I'm not going to get too far into it. Just like I could spend all our time listing out the names of their brothers and their mates, I could spend even longer listing off the names of the twenty—that's right, twenty—anubi that responded to the news of Warrick's injury. But I won't. Thorne probably has a list somewhere, so get it from him. The main one you'll need to remember is Rajya.

Rajya is... At the very core, Rajya is the current matriarch of the family of the first son of Anubis. She is Menes's mother and Warrick's grandmother. She is, like many female primals, proud. Proud of her heritage, proud of her bloodline, and proud of who she is and what she stands for. She is a woman, like Esraa, who grew up knowing that she was practically royalty.

Unlike Esraa, however, Rajya—how do I put this—hates me. Like I said a while ago, I'm working on winning over the rest of the anubi, and they're fairly receptive... but there is no winning with her.