Page 71 of Gold Sector

I look around, trying to figure out what the heck she’s doing.

Yet all she does is hold that damn position and cast her eyes downward.

“Please forgive me, Your Future Highness,” she whispers.

Now I… I just gape at her. “Stop,” I say, and it comes out a bit shrill.

Which makes the female jump backward. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean to…Fuck. I mean damn. I mean,crap…” Her eyes widen, and if she didn’t look so terrified, I may have laughed at her rush of words. “You’re going to have me exiled, aren’t you?”

“What? No! Of course not. Why the hell would I do that?” I ask, astounded by her claim. “I don’t have that kind of power, nor would I ever do that to anyone. Especially not an Omega.”

Her shoulders fall, and her bottom lip begins to tremble. “Really? Because I… I stupidly propositioned your Alpha. But I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t. Prince Oros has always been kind to me, and I… I like him. But not like that. Well, yes, like that.” She grabs her head. “Oh, damn it, Bella, stop yapping!”

A laugh bubbles out of me on impulse, one I don’t mean to voice or display, but I can’t help it.

This is the strangest conversation I’ve ever had.

And I no longer feel like challenging this woman. All I want to do is hug her.

Because I understand her. That fear. That need to apologize. That desire to survive.

Her blue eyes are wide as she stares at me, her terror somewhat quelling my giggles. I’m not actually amused at all; it’s just a nervous response.

But after a beat, she joins me. And suddenly we’re both simply…laughing.

It’s insanity. Yet it feels good. Like an emotional explosion that simply needed to happen.

At least until I realize the real reason I can’t stop giggling. It’s because the alternative is crying. Or losing my damn mind.

Prince Oros.

I knew he held a high position. His suite. The call with Riordan. The way everyone stared reverently at him in the kingdom.

Deep down, I suspected this. I even asked him about it. But he sidestepped his response, saying we would return to the discussion later.

Only, we never did.

And now I know why.

Oros is the Gold Sector Prince.

Oh, Gods…

“Why do you think I’m your future princess?” I ask after a beat of silence, my focus returning to Bella.

“Because Prince Oros is formally courting you,” she replies, a little frown marring her porcelain-like forehead. “He’s taken you all over the sector and adorned you with gold.” She looks pointedly at my necklace and my cuff. “You’re wearing his symbol.”

I glance down at the bracelet and the fiery lotusembedded in the metal. I never asked him what it meant, but I noticed it when I first put it on. “This,” I whisper.

“Yes.”

I meet her gaze again and note the confusion in her expression. “I didn’t realize he was a prince,” I tell her. “I… I suspected he might be, but he never…” I trail off, not wanting to confide more than I already have. “Anyway, I… I can let him know you stopped by?”

She shakes her head. “No. I just needed to drop this file off from the Kuanos Quarter,” she says, digging in her bag and pulling out a folder. “It’s a request for supplies.”

“Oh. So you’re… you help Oros?”

“Um, not really, no. I help Kuanos Quarter. It’s the human village. I think you visited the other day?”