Free A Hero’s Welcome by Jan Springer, Lauren Agony

The finality in her voice made him realize she was telling the truth. Something had been forged between the three women. And it involved him.
    “What was the deal between you, Cath and the Queen?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it with you.”
    “Why not? If it involves me—”
    She looked up into his eyes. He saw confusion there. Confusion and pain.
    His protective instincts kicked in. Something was terribly wrong.
    “I want you to leave with me.”
    She didn ’ t answer.
    Fear blossomed in his chest. “I know this is too fast. What I ’ m asking of you is something you should think about for awhile, but we don ’ t have time. I don ’ t want to leave you behind when I go. I won ’ t. “
    “I told you, you can’ t escape. It ’ s not possible.”
    Desperation slammed into his guts.
    “Anything is possible, Annie, when you set your mind to it.”
    “You don’ t seem to understand what ’ s happening here, Joe. You ’ re very…well endowed. The women want you. You don ’ t know what I had to do just to get one day with you.”
    “What did you have to do, Annie?”
    She didn’t look at him. Instead she traced another lazy circle around his nipple. “ You only need to know that the women want you. Bad.”
    “And what about you, Annie? Do you want me?”
    “Yes.”
    “How bad?”
    She didn ’ t answer.
    “Not bad enough to help me escape?”
    Her lush body stiffened against him. He realized immediately he ’ d said the wrong thing.
    “Is that what this is about? You’ re having sex with me to soften me up? To use me? To get me to help you escape?”
    “I’ m sorry, I shouldn ’ t have said that. It wasn ’ t fair.”
    “If you hadn ’ t said it, you ’ d be thinking it, Green Eyes.”
    “What do you want me to do, Annie? Do you want me to stay? I will if you want me to. I will fuck all those women just so I can be with you.”
    He’d never been one to scare easily in his lifetime. That ’ s why he ’ d been so laid back about getting caught by a handful of naked women. He’d figured he’d find a way out of this problem somehow. But now as he saw the tears shine in Annie ’ s eyes, he was suddenly scared. Very scared he would lose her.
    “After today, we can never be together. Ever.”
    Her words crushed him. Made his head spin. “Why not?”
    “Because of the Queen. It’ s tradition she can only have sex with females. She ’ s had her eye on me for quite some time. The other day she approached me. Her female mate is Cath and they decided they want more spice in their sex life. They want me as their next mate. I will only have sex with the two of them and any other females the Queen decides to bring into the arrangement.”
    Joe ’ s mind whirled. The Queen and Cath wanted Annie for themselves? They wanted to fuck Annie?
    “That was the agreement you made? You agreed to have sex with them? Just to be with me? God, Annie, why the hell did you do that?”
    The tears in her eyes overflowed and Joe reached out to her. She rolled away from him and sat up. Her bare breasts heaved as she inhaled a sob.
    “Don’ t touch me, Green Eyes. It ’ s over. Tonight, we will have sex and they will evaluate how you perform. Cath will begin to train you…and I ’ ll be going with the Queen. She ’ s promised me that I can get the job I ’ ve always wanted.”
    “What job?”
    “Helping the women in the Breeding Prison give birth. The doctor they have right now is almost ready to be put down.”
    Joe inhaled sharply. “What do you mean put down?”
    “She’ s going into menopause. When that happens she will be killed. Just like all of us when our time comes.”
    “But why kill you when you reach menopause?”
    “Because we will have outgrown our usefulness.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Our hubs are kept alive by producing a certain amount of female and male children. These children are produced in the prison system. If a woman breaks the law she is sent to prison. Our