Page 80 of Third Offense

He shook his head. “I don’t know. But he also mentioned Netiri.”

My gaze narrowed. “What about her?”

“He said that she’salwaysthere.”

My chest rumbled with a growl I couldn’t quite contain. “Why hasn’t he told me that?”

“I don’t know.” His nostrils flared, his pupils dilating. “But I liked that sound. Make it again.”

I narrowed my gaze, my hands working to clean the cuts on his face. “Focus, Novak.”

“I’m always focused, little cherry,” he returned. But something about that statement had his brow coming down. “Except for lately. Auric did a number on my head.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have picked a fight with your commander.” I punctuated the suggestion by placing an alcohol pad directly over his busted lip.

He growled in response. “He gave you to Ketos like a fucking dessert on a silver platter.” The lethality in his tone spread goose bumps over my arms.

I considered calling Raven to ask her to heal Novak, but I doubted my mate would have appreciated that.

Besides, he didn’t appear that injured. He mostly just had a gash under his ear that had caused blood to trickle along his jaw—which I finished cleaning up now.

A bloody lip—which I’d already tended to.

And busted knuckles.

He’d live without Raven’s help.

Besides, Auric was a capable fighter, something Novak knew well enough. He’d want to heal any injuries he’d earned the old-fashioned way.

“Nothing to say on Ketos?” Novak prodded.

I locked gazes with him. “There’s nothing to say because there’s nothing happening there.”

His gaze narrowed. “But you’re compatible.”

“Obviously.”

“Do you want him?” A blunt question, one I should have anticipated from Novak as he was never one to mince words.

I swallowed, my gaze going to the wound beneath his ear again. “I’m… drawn to him,” I admitted slowly. “But I barely know him.”

“You barely knew me, too,” he pointed out quietly.

“Our situation was different.”

“How?” he asked.

“Well, for starters, we were sharing a room. I couldn’t escape your scent.” It was meant as a light comment, but his hand caught my wrist, his silver-blue eyes flashing as I met his gaze.

“You can’t escape his either. Not here.”

I studied him for a long moment, then cleared my throat. “I have you and Auric.”

“You do,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t tell me if you want Ketos, too.”

It wasn’t like Novak to bechatty, which meant this conversation mattered.

A lot.