Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 710: Big Dummies

Kaiden looked at her and grinned.

”Alexandra,” he said. ”I’ve come to realize that you wield the strongest weapon in the universe.”

She blinked. ”Huh?”

”Truly.” He nodded with the grave authority of a man delivering a battlefield assessment. ”Nothing rivals the tears of women.”

Alexandra’s red eyes narrowed.

”How dare you,” she said, and her voice carried the quiet fury of a woman who had just ugly-cried on live broadcast and was now being complimented on it like a strategic asset.

Then she moved.

It was fast and uncoordinated, the kind of movement that happened before the brain could talk the body out of it. She closed the distance in a burst that was more stumble than dash, her arms coming up and wrapping around his torso with a grip that squeezed the air out of his lungs.

Kaiden parted his arms and let her in.

His hands came to rest on her back, one between her shoulder blades and the other at the small of her spine, and he held her the way he’d held her once before, firm and steady.

”Thank you,” she whispered into his shirt. Her voice was muffled and shaking. ”Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

He hugged her back without hesitating.

”Are you not angry at me?” he asked.

Alexandra’s grip loosened just enough for her to tilt her head up. ”Angry?”

”You just became my mouthpiece, Alexandra.” His voice stayed casual. The words landed heavier. ”We took your sad past, your trauma, everything you went through with that creature, and we put it on a screen next to two women with a different problem so the audience would connect the dots. We’re weaponizing your pain for internet brownie points.”

The studio was quiet. Several of his girls had gone still.

Alexandra pressed her face back into his shirt and squeezed harder.

”You’re a dummy,” she said.

Kaiden blinked.

”A big dummy who thinks too much and always tries to take on too much weight.” Her voice was steady now, buried against him but clear. ”You didn’t force me to do anything, Kaiden. You didn’t even ask. I heard what happened to those two, and I offered. That was my choice.”

”Is that so?”

”That is so.” She pulled back just enough to look up at him, and her eyes were still red but her jaw was set. ”My trauma and my past won’t change no matter what anyone does. I’ve accepted that. So the only thing I can do is make the most of it.”

Her fingers tightened on the fabric of his shirt. ”You better believe that if some cruel bastard comes along and tries to antagonize you, I’ll appear on camera or do whatever is needed to sway the public. As you so rudely pointed out, I appear to be quite good at weaponizing my tears, so... That’s the least I can do for the people who gave me a home.”

Kaiden looked at her.

He didn’t speak for a long moment, and in that silence he saw what this woman actually was.

A girl who’d been broken by a monster and rebuilt herself one morning at a time, who flinched at the mere sight of men and struggled to visit her own parents, and who had just walked into a recording studio and torn herself open in front of millions of strangers because two women she barely knew needed someone to believe them. Unreasonably brave, in the way that only people who understood real suffering could be.

”You’re a dummy too,” he spoke up finally. ”Taking on too much weight for the sake of others.”

Alexandra giggled against him. The sound was small and wet but warm. ”Then I guess we’re both big dummies. Because I certainly won’t change my ways.” She tilted her head. ”And neither will you, right?”

”Two big dummies,” Kaiden chuckled.

He held her for another moment, and his voice came out softer than he intended. ”Thank you, Alexandra.”

”No.” Her grip tightened one final time. ”Don’t even say that.”

Kaiden nodded against the top of her head and left it there.

He looked down at the girl in his arms and let the appreciation settle in. The whole thing worked because Alexandra was genuine. Every tear she’d shed was earned, every reaction honest, and the audience could feel it because she was the internet’s darling, the girl millions of people wanted to see smile again. Her sadness at what Ashbound had done to those women was real, her horror at the predatory callers. All of it, genuine.

”Blondie Bestie,” came a voice from nearby. ”Are you vying for the fourth Valkyrie spot?”

”Kya!!” Alexandra yelped as she realized that she initiated a hug with a guy - and this was a guy with many lovers - for the first time in her life and was still nestled against him.

She tried to jump back but didn’t make it far.

Nyx was already there, crossing the distance from her wall in a few quick strides and wrapping both of them in a hug from the side. Her arms went around Kaiden’s back and Alexandra’s shoulders at the same time, pulling them together.

Kaiden felt the impact immediately. Nyx’s chest pushed against his arm with the kind of soft, heavy warmth that rearranged his awareness of the room, and Alexandra’s pressed into his ribs from the other side, and for a moment he was sandwiched between two very generous figures and two very honest hearts and the combination was almost unfair.

”You were amazing, Alex,” Nyx murmured against Alexandra’s hair. ”Thank you.”

Alexandra’s face was pink and her composure was in shambles, but a smile broke through anyway. ”Hehe... I’m getting too much gratitude today!”

Kaiden wrapped an arm around each of them and held on. Nyx’s hair smelled faintly of lavender and Alexandra’s maid outfit was still damp from tears, and between the two of them he remembered why any of this mattered.

Then he caught movement over Nyx’s shoulder and realized they had an audience.

Tessa and Talia stood side by side with the expressions of women who’d found front-row seats to the best show in the building and had no intention of looking away. Tessa’s grin was enormous. Talia’s face was composed, but her eyes were bright with amusement. His girls watched from behind them with expressions ranging from amused to predatory.

Every single one of them was watching.

Kaiden patted both girls’ backs twice, gentle and firm, and let go.

Nyx released them with a satisfied hum and stepped back. Alexandra smoothed the front of her skirt and touched her cheeks as if checking whether her blush was visible from space. Then her cheeks reddened even further when she realized that, in fact, it probably was visible from space.

She was burning.

Quiet footsteps followed.

Brittany and Trisha approached from the far side of the studio. They walked close together, shoulders nearly touching, with the careful gait of people entering a room where they weren’t sure they belonged. Brittany’s face was still puffy and her arms were folded across her stomach. Trisha’s hands were clasped in front of her so tightly that the knuckles had gone pale.

”Are we...” Brittany started, and her voice was small. ”Are we interrupting anything?”