She will be my wife. The mother of my children. She will be everything I’ve ever wanted and then some. I will have her.
 
 I step up behind her and grip her hips. She lets out a squeal and I lean into her ear.
 
 “Do you know what you are cooking?”
 
 “Not a fucking clue. Was hoping it wasn’t anything sacred or some shit cause I needed food.”
 
 A chuckle at her thought process escapes me. I fucking love this woman already.
 
 “Who keeps sacred shit in their kitchen?”
 
 “You’re an alien. Maybe you do weird shit. I don’t know. At this point I’m just hoping I’m not making poison.”
 
 I glance over at the pan in front of her and note the ingredients on the counter. Nothing here will kill her, but it’s an interesting choice of stuff to add together. Not something I ever would have thought of.
 
 “It’s not. Interesting choices, but not something that will harm you.”
 
 “Good. It smells good, at least. Want to be brave and taste it for me?”
 
 I hesitate but then lift the spoon resting on the side of the pan and dip it into the food within. It’s meat from an animal called a Jynthara from back home. She mixed it with a starchy vegetable that we have called a Vordakai. Then she added a ton of spices from my home planet.
 
 I take a hesitant sniff as the spoon reaches me. It smells good. Like spices and hearty meat. I place the spoon in my mouth and take the mixture onto my tongue. The flavors burst across my mouth and it’s perfect. Better than anything I’ve ever tasted back home.
 
 We have so many great cooks, but this dish is something new and amazing. Something worthy of a queen. I place the spoon back on the side of the pan and then drop to my knees behind her. She turns slowly to see what I’m doing.
 
 “Marry me. Come to my home with me. Be my wife. Have my babies. Let me fill your belly full. Fuck me, that was amazing. You are amazing.”
 
 “It can’t be that good.” She rolls her eyes in my direction before turning away.
 
 “Oh, but it is that good. It’s amazing actually. I want you to marry me.”
 
 “You’ve lost it. We just met less than seven hours ago. We can’t get married.”
 
 “Who says? Is this some human culture type of thing?”
 
 She offers me an odd look over her shoulder that I’m not sure what to make of it. When she looks away, she sighs heavily before grabbing a bowl from the cabinet to her left.
 
 “I guess you can say that. Not sure what happens on your planet, but humans don’t just marry someone they’ve just met. We take a while to get to know each other.”
 
 “What do you want to know? I will tell you anything. Everything.”
 
 “You can’t just tell me things. We have to learn from one another. You could tell me a ton of lies and I wouldn’t know the difference. Then we would be married and in a shit relationship that we would both hate.” She turns and blows on the bite of food before slipping it past her lips. Her eyes open wide and she licks her lips. “That does taste amazing.”
 
 “See. Now marry me.”
 
 She shakes her head and moves past me with her bowl to the table. I stand and grab myself a bowl of the food before joining her. Does she not believe me? I want to marry this woman right here and now. The rest we can figure out later.
 
 CHAPTER NINE
 
 Zahra
 
 He can’t be serious. I’m not going to marry him. It’s too soon. What the hell is wrong with this man? I don’t need a husband. Even if his cock is god tier and I actually enjoy his company. Sure, it hasn’t been long since we’ve met, but something about him just makes me want to stay here.
 
 At the same time, I don’t know how I could do that. Leaving behind everything that I’ve known. Everything that I’ve built here. At the same time… Would anyone really care if I left the planet? Would they be better off without me?
 
 My thoughts swirl into a spiral of self doubt. The depression inside of me is nothing short of overwhelming words swirling inside my brain. The world is nothing but a cesspool of human interaction that I haven’t cared for in so long. Would it really matter if I left with this alien man and lived somewhere else?
 
 No. I can’t do that. I need to get out of here. My brain is unwilling to stop the thoughts as they swirl around in the depressive episodic swirling that makes me willing to commit to unnatural things.