Night has fallen as I stand in the vast garden of antique roses my father has made for my sister and me to enjoy. I’m not willing to go back inside just yet though as I think about my future and how it will no longer be here on Earth.

The pale pink roses are my absolute favorite of the various colors that surround me. Reds, oranges, and a vine of the rare blue tiny ones captivate me. Though not enough to keep my mind from wandering away to my impending fate.

The stars twinkle over my head and the news my father, the Senator, has just given me tells me somewhere up amongst them, there is the man who is about to be my husband. Since Earth is trying desperately to stay out of a war with the Euthenia Nebula, I have been informed it’s my great honor to be the first Earthling to be awarded as a bride to the hierarchy that rules the distant planet.

The only problem is I don’t see it as an honor. I see it for what it is. I am a pawn in this game the men who run Earth call expansion. The need to expand constantly our reach as Earthlings is a thing the handful of men that rule the entire Earth have foremost on their minds.

My father made sure the blood flowing through my veins is as pure as any Earthling’s can be. My older sister and I are a bit of a science project. However, only she was smart and lost her innocence to a common man, and by doing so, she took herself out of the supposedly honorable position to be offered or awarded to the alien races as a pure bride.

To ensure my father had, at least, one viable prodigy he could use to aid his addiction to rule over as many planets as possible, I have been kept locked up.

Oh, my prison has been a place of grandeur and great beauty. Large stone walls fence in a hundred acres of gardens, sports courts, a vast swimming pool and even a labyrinth of tall bushes my sister and I nearly got lost in a few times.

They call what I now live in alone with my father, a mansion. I don’t know how people can live in anything smaller than what I live in. We even have a private theater, and at times, actors come for private plays for my family.

The treatment I’ve received in this protected state has been good. I have never been treated without respect and honor. I also have never been able to make my own decisions or leave the estate.

Due to my special lineage, I’m too perfect not to be used for the supposed good of our planet and our species. My father often tells me how the surrogate who carried me died as she gave birth to me, but said she was not dying in vain. She promised him I would help to make Earth the superpower he dreamt it would be one day.

My body carries the DNA of fifteen people. Some are prizewinning scientists, some are great athletes, and a couple of them are scholarly geniuses. Then there were another two, a man and a woman, who were simply added because of their great beauty.

When I look in the mirror, I don’t see all of that. I see a young woman who has been kept much like a diamond in a box, waiting for someone to open it and see it sparkle and shine. But an alien is not who I want to open it.

I love this planet and have no desire to even visit another, much less rule it. The man I’m being awarded to is a prince. The Prince of Euthenia, Kerr, is the one to become my husband in the matter of one week.

It was something I always thought it might happen to me. Somehow I had managed to keep the fact that I would most likely be awarded to a man and made to marry him without ever knowing him, out of my brain all these years.

I will see my new husband’s face for the first time when my father walks me down the aisle to give me to him. After the reception, I am expected to let the stranger take my innocence, and I am expected to be submissive to him, his wants, and his needs.

Euthenia is a planet ruled by men. Much the same as Earth, only on Earth we all pretend men and women have the same rights. It’s not that way on Euthenia. As a princess and one-day queen, my father has told me I will be honored and respected more so than other females on the planet. He tells me my life there will be fantastic, and that I’m so very lucky.

Then why do I not feel like that?

I put up a fight about being given to the alien man. My sister may be out, but there are other women who have been bred in the same way as me, and they are viable options. I begged my father and then when that didn’t work I threatened him with the typical, I’ll kill myself, antics, but nothing worked.

He told me it was a done deal, and I must accept my fate. He also warned me about how the men of Euthenia deal with unreasonable females. Let’s just say I don’t want to be at the stinging end of anyone’s strap. Especially a man built the way most Euthenians are.

I have no idea what Kerr will be built like, but the pictures of other males I’ve seen from that planet have shown me they are massive men. Tall in stature, broad shoulders, thick waists, and thick legs. Every muscle in their bodies is defined and large.

A shiver runs through me as I think about the sheer strength my new husband might have. I do hope he’s gentle though. A man who will treat me with some semblance of love. Eventually anyway.

I’ve read many books while trapped in this paradise my father has made for us. Romance novels fill the shelves of the large library we have here. To be a heroine that finds a hero to love and care for and be loved and cared for has always been my dream.

My dream hero was no alien, though and it seems my father and the other men who rule this world have already decided my fate is not going to be the one I’ve dreamt. And I can accept that if they can accept the fact I will not be going out of my way to make sure they get the future they think they’re going to get by marrying me off to an alien.

I really have no idea why they gave me the genes of such strong people if they wanted me to just shut up and sit back and do as I’m told without any arguments what-so-ever. They really are idiots.

The rulers of this world have made sure to keep the women made to be awarded to the alien races apart. I’m pretty sure if we were all together we might just overthrow the handful of old men who think they know best for our race.

My education has been vast. I’ve been told all of the females like me have been also equally educated. In my opinion, it’s high time the females took over running this planet. Hence, the reason we are kept separate and are now being given to people who live on other planets.

Perhaps the old men thought we’d be no threat and seeing as we would be if let out on the planet, they saw fit to send us all away, keeping Earth for themselves.

Earth has overtaken thirteen planets in the last one hundred years. In the last ten years, The Euthenia Nebula opened its doors for Earth to send some of its residents to populate the desolate areas of their planet. They call themselves settlers.

Earthlings are well respected as people who will go through many hardships to make a place inhabitable. Many other planets invite us in, and we tend to creep in and overtake the entire planet before they realize we’ve done it.

Euthenia wants us to stop us from moving into their cities. They don’t mind us doing a little prospecting and trying to make something from nothing, which we are excellent at. They do however expect us to respect their borders, a thing we aren’t known for doing.

In my opinion, it’s the Euthenians’ own fault for inviting us in. But they don’t see it that way and have been threatening us with annihilation here of late. Thus the offering of a bride to the next in line in the hierarchy. A bride who has been touted as perfection.

Well, like any human, I am far from perfect. I’m sure my soon to be husband will see that the pedestal my leaders have put me on is a farce, and I am but a mortal woman with faults and blemishes.

I am sure to displease him with my lack of physical and sexual knowledge. I have no doubt that will knock me down a notch in his eyes. My mind is sharp and so is my tongue, something he will see as unattractive, I am sure.

Since it’s impossible for me to live up to what has been said about me, my marriage will definitely be one of disappointment and not like the love stories I’ve read.

Why does this have to be my fate?

The Euthenia Nebula is not quite like Earth. There are two suns, one larger than the other. Three moons in various lunar stages are always visible in the vast sky.

The planet is small, though. Only a third of the size of Earth. But the people who inhabit the planet have adapted to their area and only have two children per each couple. The pregnancies there take a whole year before the child is born but this is not due to birth control; it’s just how their bodies have adjusted to the planet.

It’s quite amazing, and apparently, the way we humans have the ability to reproduce so quickly is a real problem for that planet. They’re accusing us of populating like rabbits; taking up too much of the space afforded to us already.

It makes me wonder how they will take my impact on the royal family. I will be the first Earthling to have intercourse with a Euthenian. Another thing my planet calls wonderful and I see it the opposite way.

It is really a mystery how many children I will have or if I will have any for that matter. A complete mystery, when I am all about logic and science. I hate mystery.

Of course, there may be something wrong with the royal genes as my prince’s brother died shortly after birth, leaving him an only child. A rare thing on that planet.

I suppose my fate is to be a science project until my end. My only saving grace is that I may find my husband easy on the eyes, as the few pictures I’ve seen of the men of the planet have shown me they all are terribly handsome.

Could it be that a gorgeous man might help me accept my fate? It certainly wouldn’t hurt I suppose.