I wasn't about to go spoiling my perfect track record, now.

[But there's some truth in what she says-- he could have killed her, written her off just as she surmises, but he didn't. It's something he easily passes off as training and the desire to avoid a cut from the Bite, to have any small blemish against his name when among the Dogs he's well known for his control, for his willingness to be controlled.

But he hadn't wanted to kill her. A small kernel of truth that he chooses not to look at or examine to closely or even consciously acknowledge. But it's there in him, dimly, all the same.]

Besides. You may be a pilot, but you're still human, and I'm still a Dog. I'm still beneath you. There's no getting away from that.