She turned to look at her uncle, who had subsided into sullen glaring.
"You know, I asked one of your men why they were doing this, and he told me that they didn't have a choice," Lucy mused. She glanced at Eren. "I wonder why it didn't work on you? Is it really because you're my mate?"
Eren consulted his bear and came up with a surprising answer.
"My bear says it's not that. He knows that's what it is with your power. But with this one, it feels different. He thinks it only works if you don't know he can do it. It's all tied up with his griffin secret."
Lucy's eyes and mouth went round.
"Really? Let's test this."
She marched over to the door of the cabin and threw it open. Out on deck, Rodric's men were sullenly patching up each other's wounds.
"Hey!" Lucy called. "This guy in here, let me tell you a big secret about him!"
"Stop!" Rodric roared.
Lucy went on talking over the top of them. "He's a shifter, and not just any shifter—he's a griffin. Look. Like this." She paused, and Eren sensed from her body language a moment of uncertainty when she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to shift. But then it went off without a hitch. She glided smoothly into her lynx-falcon form, and then human again, clothes and all.
Eren heard started gasps.
"And that's not all," Lucy went on.
"Stop!"
"That thing he does where he can control you? Yes, I know all about that now, and it only works if you don't know about it. So now he can't make you obey him." She turned back to deliver a gleeful smile to Eren and a horrified-looking Rodric. "Okay,nowwe can leave."
"You know, I hate to break it to you, my love, my mate, my only," Eren murmured as they went out on deck, past a muttering and angry group of hired thugs who had their attention focused on Rodric. "This would be a great time to make a dramatic exit, I agree ... but there's not actually anywhere to go."
"Are you sure about that?"
Eren looked around.
He thought at first that she must mean there was land nearby. But all he saw was the tossing gray waves with curtains of rain sweeping over their white tops. The cabin cruiser had motored down to a steady gliding motion.
And there was another boat coming up on their starboard side.
Eren thought at first that he was hallucinating.
"That's theCodfather. Who's piloting it?"
"Dane," Lucy said triumphantly. "I saw him get on before we left. I hoped he'd catch up."
They both waited at the railing while the fishing boat pulled alongside. Eren glimpsed Dane giving them a wave from the pilot house.
"We still have to get on board," Eren murmured. "That's not going to be easy."
Lucy looked like she was eyeing the distance from their deck to the fishing boat. "You know, I have wings now."
"You can't fly with my weight. Don't even try!"
"Maybe not, but I bet I can jump."
With that, she wrapped her arms around him.
"Careful," Eren warned, hugging her closely.
This time he felt her shift. It was a fascinating thing. She went from being Lucy, warm and curvy, to a solid, muscular mass of heavy gray fur and damp feathery wings, about as heavy and massive as he was.