Gabriel took a moment to gather his thoughts. Jaw working. “I’m angry. I’m ashamed that our enemy planned a war and didn’t even factor us into the equation. That they thought we would lie down and take it. That we wereinsignificant.”
A whisper ran through the crowd, but Gabriel silenced them with the intensity of his gaze.
“And I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being angry. I’m tired of showing my back to an enemy who doesn’t even have the decency to think of us as a threat. Because we are a threat. We’ve proven that before, and we can do it again. We can fight them.”
A murmur picked up, people leaning in to whisper to their neighbors, but Blake couldn’t take his eyes off Gabriel. Not because he looked any different, but because hewasdifferent.
He wasn’t just Gabriel.
He was Commander Lennox.
A voice rose from the back. “Why us? Why do we have to be the ones to do it?”
Gabriel lifted his chin. “Because we can,” he said, raising his voice until it echoed off the walls and windows. Until it seemed to become something they didn’t just hear but felt. Rattling in their chests and burning in their veins.
“Because despite all their impressive weapons and spaceships, we have something they never could have predicted.” He let his words sink in before his lips curled in a smirk.
“The enduring stubbornness of the human spirit. Humanity wasn’t born with the ability to climb mountains or touch the bottom of the sea. No. We took it. We reached out with bothhands, bared our teeth, defied fear itself, and did itbecause we can.Because we don’t accept defeat.”
He stalked across the room until he was standing in the middle of the canteen, every eye following him like a magnet.
“They came here expecting to find prey. But what they’ll get instead is the byproduct of generations who had the audacity to not just survive, but to fight. When we couldn’t see in the dark, we made fire. When we couldn’t find a horizon, we built boats. And when we conquered the sea, we took to the skies.
“Those aliens came here to fight each other. They’re not looking at us, but it’s the predator you don’t see that lands the killing blow.”
Gabriel slammed his fist on the closest table. “We are outgunned, outnumbered, outclassed, and in over our heads—but we will win this war.” He slammed his fist against the table with each word. “Because we are too goddamned stubborn to lose!”
The room was silent and still while they processed his words…and then, as one, they mimicked his drumbeat. A slow crescendo of closed fists on tabletops until their voices joined the percussion, until nothing could be heard except the stubborn, unceasing roar of a group of people given the promise of hope. Until they were all on their feet, hearts in their hands, shoulders squared, ready to fight.
Because of Gabriel. For Gabriel.
He was among them, his eyes sparkling. Not a soldier, not a man, but something so much more—their Commander. The man who gave them not just a reason to fight, but to believe. To have a hand in their own destiny. To give them something they thought they’d lost.
Blake shoved through the throng of people until he was in front of Gabriel. The taller man grinned when he saw him. Noone else would notice the red tips of his ears, or the way the corners of his mouth twitched with self-consciousness.
But then, no one else had ever had Gabriel the way Blake had.
Despite the people around them and the thrum of energy, they only had eyes for each other. Swept up in it, Blake pushed up onto tiptoes and threw his arms around Gabriel’s neck, kissing him soundly on the mouth.
“Well, Commander,” he said breathlessly. “Looks like you’ve just been promoted to General.”
Gabriel’s eyes were molten as he looked down at Blake. “Yeah? Is that what you need me to be?”
“That’s what they need you to be.” Blake smiled softly. “I just need to be beside you.”
His arms tightened around Blake. “Right beside me. From now on.”
They kissed again, and someone whistled. Blake flipped his middle finger in their general direction without taking his lips off Gabriel.
In what must be the most anti-climactic case of déjà vu ever recorded, Blake watched Judd rip the cap off a dry-erase marker with his teeth. He spat the cap at Tommy, but Phin was ready, slapping the cap out of the air. He glared at Judd.
“Okay,” Judd said, ignoring the vitriol as his marker squeaked on the surface. He marked a line down the center of the board and then wroteOperation: ET Get Fuckedalong the top.
Blake winced and glanced over at Sara. She was sitting beside him on the fireplace surround. The bricks kept catching his pants, pulling at them unpleasantly. It was the only seatavailable in the foyer of the lobby where they’d congregated. She didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to the board.
Irving seemed much more put out by Judd’s unique brand of…personality. His lips were twisted, the only indication of irritation on his bland face. He looked completely put together and not like he’d been washing from buckets of river water like the rest of them. How he managed to get his hairline so even without clippers was a mystery, something Blake found himself spending far too much brain power on. He even smelled good.
His perfume was probably apocalypse proof—Eau de sanctimonious asshole.
