"So it looks like we have bottled water and—well, bottled water, mostly, except for the fizzy shit my brother likes to put in here."
"What fizzy 'shit'?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder. She said it very carefully, as if she wasn't used to swearing. Her hand was almost brushing his arm. He was acutely aware of her warmth; it made the skin tingle all down his arm.
"Oh, it's this orange cream soda my brother likes."
"I'll take one of those, please," she said, brightening.
As soon as he popped the top off the soda and handed it to her, she downed half the bottle.
"Whoa, slow down there."
"Sorry," she gasped out, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She took a deep breath. "Thank you. That's very good. I was thirsty."
That was evident. He was abruptly flooded with adrenaline as his bear had a sudden, overwhelming urge to find whoever had scared her this much and tear them apart. He wanted to take her gorgeous body in his arms and never let anything hurt her ever again.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
Eren had frozen with the need to wrestle his bear back under control. It didn't want to hurther; he could tell already that his bear would never harm a hair on her head, or allow her to come to harm. But there was no way he could explain that to her. He just had to be as nonthreatening as possible, to the extent that he could manage it when he was twice her size and they were on his boat.
"Sorry, just thinking about things," he said. "If it's been a while since you ate anything substantial, I have some sandwiches. You want one?"
Her eyes lit up.
Soon he had her sitting up top in the pilothouse on one of the benches along the wall, wrapped in a spare flannel shirt because that pretty pink blouse definitely didn't look warm enough for the open sea, with a sandwich in one hand and the creme soda in the other. Eren throttled the boat back up to speed, although not too fast because he didn't want to rattle her around while she was eating.
"So I guess it's obvious someone scared you," he said after a little while, when she didn't volunteer any information.
TEAR THEM LIMB FROM LIMB!
Thanks, bear, that is disgusting and also not helpful.
"I can't talk about it," she said so softly he could barely hear her.
"Do you need help?"
"I don't think you can help me," she said, huddling in on herself.
TEAR THEM APART AND EAT THEIR—
Thank you, bear, that'll be enough.
"If someone's after you, I can take you back to my hometown," he said. "You'll be safe there."
"No offense, but—" She paused, and then said, "I appreciate the offer very much, but I don't think anywhere is safe."
"I'm serious. No one will hurt you in Westerly Cove. No onecanhurt you there."
Lucy frowned, her agate eyes clouding. "What in the world is that supposed to mean?"
How much to tell her? How muchcouldhe tell her? Eren wasn't even sure if he himself believed the stories that Westerly Cove was protected with defensive magic in its gargoyle statues; no one who posed a threat to any of its residents could cross the town's borders. Big brother Tor swore up and down that it was true, and also said that there was more to it than Eren or anyone else in town knew—but he refused to say more, claiming it wasn't his secret to tell.
Eren understood about having secrets.
"Look," he said, backing off from giving her the full explanation. The entire "our town is protected by lucky gargoyles" story was just going to make him sound like a lunatic. "I'm going to keep you safe, no matter what. If someone comes looking for you, I'll make sure they don't hurt you."
Lucy crossed her legs at the ankles and leaned back against the wall, looking at him with the wary, defensive expression of someone who had been hurt in the past. "Why would you help me?"
Another thing he couldn't explain; he wasn't going to drop the true-mates explanation on her without warning either. "Because you need help," he tried. "And it's how I was raised. If people need help, here on the island, we help them."