Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 745: Clan Leader

”Everything I own, everyone who follows me, every Chronos to my name. I wish them to be yours, should you choose to accept it.”

The lounge was silent.

Kaiden stared at his mother. Her arms were still parted, her posture formal, her red eyes fixed on him and waiting.

He knew this posture. Arms presented, chin level, spine drawn to its full height. He’d watched it across dining tables and in hallways since he was old enough to remember. It was the stance his mother used when she’d made a decision for the family and was informing them, not asking. It was also the stance she used before she left a room and didn’t come back for days.

She looked like a woman settling her affairs for good.

Behind her, the professionals stood in a line along the far wall. Lawyers, fighters, executives. None of them moved. None of them looked surprised, which meant she’d told them before she told him.

”Mother.” His voice came out quieter than he intended. ”What are you talking about?”

”I believe I was clear.”

”You were clear. But... Why?”

Vespera lowered her arms, precise and automatic.

”The Ashborn lineage has been in decline for generations. My parents presided over its erosion. I accelerated it.” She said it the way she said everything, as a fact that required no emotional annotation. ”I built a household where my children grew up cold, afraid, and isolated from each other. I placed my family’s legacy in someone else’s grip and watched him use it to hurt my children.”

Her chin lifted by a fraction.

”These are not excuses. They are an assessment. The Ashborn name requires leadership I have proven myself incapable of providing.”

”That’s not-”

”You are not legally a member of the Ashborn family.” Vespera continued as though he hadn’t spoken. ”Your public identity is Kaiden Grey, for I have already exiled you, an act that perfectly represents the culmination of my innumerable failures. That’s why I have no right to place this burden on you. If you decline, the offer is withdrawn and we will not speak of it again.”

She studied him, patient and steady.

On the opposite couch, Nyx had found Aria’s wrist. Luna was sitting forward, arms no longer folded. The girls were watching Vespera with the shared tension of women who understood they were witnessing a mother try to walk away from her own family.

Kaiden stood.

Bastet shifted as his weight left the couch, and Alice’s fingers slipped from his arm.

”She’s leaving... Kai, mom wants to disappear...”

Alice’s voice came small, panicked.

Kaiden looked at Vespera, and saw the woman for what she really was. A sheer force of nature, a walking calamity. But also...

A mother overcome with guilt, burdened by decades of decisions that had led to her family falling apart.

She saw herself as the cause of all hardship, and believed that life would be better with her out of the picture.

Kaiden crossed the space between the couch and his mother with the same unhurried stride she’d used to cross the four meters earlier, and stopped in front of her.

The room held still. Vespera’s expression shifted, and for the first time since she’d begun speaking, uncertainty crossed her face.

For a few long seconds, Kaiden wasn’t looking at her but at the line of people along the wall. At where they were standing.

His gaze returned to his mother.

”Mother. You believe your leadership to be insufficient.”

”It is.”

”Then who are all these people standing behind you?”

They hadn’t positioned themselves between the couches, facing both mother and son. They were behind Vespera, flanking her. The way people stand behind a leader, because that was what she was to them and everyone in this room knew it.

Vespera’s lips parted. No sound came out. Her red eyes moved, involuntarily, toward the wall behind her, and for a moment she studied the men and women she’d assembled as though she was seeing them for the first time.

They met her gaze. No one flinched. No one shifted.

She turned back to Kaiden. Her mouth was still open, and the Shadow Monarch, who had planned everything down to Natasha’s donation amount, did not have an answer.

”They’re not standing behind me, Mother. They followed you here, waited outside this room because you told them to.”

He reached out and took her hand. Her fingers were cold. They always were.

”You don’t get to call that failure.”

Vespera stared at where he held her. Her son’s grip was warm and completely unwelcome in the way that all evidence against a settled verdict is unwelcome. She had built her case. She had reached her conclusion. The data was supposed to be settled.

”Kaiden.” Her voice had lost its formal register. It was just his name, spoken quietly. ”I-”

”I accept the burden,” Kaiden declared.

Her shoulders settled by a fraction.

”I accept the Ashborn name, and I accept the burden of being its leader.”

Vespera exhaled. A small, controlled breath, the closest she had come to visible relief all night.

”Good. Then I will begin the-”

”And my first act as leader of the Ashborn is to order you, Vespera Ashborn, member of my Ashborn family, to keep running it.”

The exhale stopped.

”You heard me.” The corner of his mouth twitched. ”You’re not handing me the keys and disappearing. I’m an awakened fighter who’s busy with my progression and streams. I can’t run an intelligence network. I can’t manage sponsor relationships. I can’t do whatever it is you do with lawyers at two in the morning.”

He glanced at the line of professionals, then back at her.

”So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m the head of the Ashborn family. You’re the one who makes sure the family actually functions. You lead until I’m ready to take over, and you stay close enough that I can learn from you while you do it.”

He held her gaze.

”That’s an order, Mother. From your new leader. You better listen.”

Kaiden winked at her. ”Or I’ll be forced to exile you. And between you and me, ’Vespera Grey’ just does not have the same ring to it.”

A sound escaped from the line behind Vespera. One of the younger women had covered her mouth, giggling yet tearing up all at once. She wasn’t alone.

Vespera had planned for both acceptance and refusal.

She had not planned for a twenty-two-year-old boy to take everything she offered and use it to claim her.

Her throat moved once.

”That... is a very inefficient use of executive authority.”

Kaiden grinned. ”See? That’s why I need you at the helm. I’m but a hopeless newbie.”

Behind them, from the couch, a sob broke the silence.

It was Alexandra.

In fairness, most sobs tended to belong to Alexandra, easily the most emotionally expressive girl in the room.

That is to say, she could break into tears at a moment’s notice multiple times a day with zero prior warning.

The blonde maid had a gift for emotional composure that rivaled a paper bag’s gift for holding water. Her eyes were already swollen, her cheeks were wet, and her hands were clasped over her mouth in the universal posture of someone who had given up on dignity several minutes ago.

”Alex.” Nyx reached over and wiped beneath Alexandra’s eyes with her thumbs, gentle and practiced, the way someone handles a friend who cries at commercials. ”Breathe.”

”I am breathing,” Alexandra managed through her fingers. ”I’m fine.”

”Your makeup is melting off your face in real time. I can see it happening.” Nyx tilted her head.

”At least I have an excuse!” Alexandra’s hands dropped from her mouth long enough to jab a finger at Nyx’s face. ”Why are your eyes red, huh?!”

Nyx’s smile didn’t waver, but her hand moved very quickly to clean her own eyes. ”Lies.”

From behind Kaiden, a blur hit Vespera.

Alice slammed into her mother’s midsection with the same velocity she used for everything, arms wrapping tight, face pressing into her chest.

”You’re not leaving, right?” Alice’s voice was muffled against her mother’s clothes. ”The new boss of the family ordered you to stay. You always kept telling me that I have to listen to the family head... The same rules apply to you or you’re being unfair!!”

Vespera looked down at the top of her daughter’s head.

”So be it.”

Alice’s grip tightened.

”Promise.”

A pause.

”I promise.”

Alice didn’t let go for a long time.