But crude or not, she was absolutely right about Karn.
The thing Lilli couldn’t understand was how she herself could have been so wrong about him.
How could he lie to me like this? she wondered numbly as she waited for Mistress Martinet to unseal the plastiglass door and let them out. How could he say he couldn’t get me pregnant and do this to me? How could he say he loved me and then act this way?
What was she going to tell her mother?
“Baby!” Karn rushed to her the moment she came out of the plastiglass insemination chamber. He took her by the shoulders. “Are you all right?”
Lilli shook off his hands and looked up at him.
“How could you, Karn?
“How could I what?” He looked at her with confusion in his mismatched eyes and she realized he hadn’t been able to hear anything that was said on the other side of the plastiglass.
“How could you penetrate your Mistress and make her pregnant? You disgusting male.” Mistress Martinet looked at him with utter loathing. She raised the pain collar remote, which she was still holding, and pointed it directly at him while pushing the button.
Nothing happened.
“What is wrong with this?” Mistress Martinet shook the remote. “I thought the plastiglass barrier was blocking the signal but it still isn’t working!”
Karn ignored her.
“Lilli,” he said urgently. “What are you talking about? What did that thing do to you?”
“The insemination bot didn’t do anything—well, it didn’t make me pregnant, anyway.” Lilli looked up at him, tears stinging her eyes. “Because you already did that. You made me pregnant even though you said you couldn’t. And everyone is going to know because the baby is a male.”
“No one is going to know.”
The new voice from the doorway was horribly familiar.
Looking around, Lilli saw her mother standing there. And she was pointing a blaster straight at Karn’s chest.
Forty-Two
“Whoa, hang on there. Let’s just think this through.” Karn put up his hands at once in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Mistress Mirabella—”
“Don’t speak to me, bodyslave.” Her voice was like ice but she was looking at Lilli, not him. “So you’ve disgraced me yet again—and in the worst way possible,” she said. “How could you do this to me, Lilliana? Do you know how difficult this is going to be to keep quiet?”
“Mother!” Lilli put a hand to her throat nervously. “How…why are you here?”
“I’m here because I got a very damning vid message on my personal communications device about an hour ago,” her mother snapped. “It was from Priss Tempertant and it showed you and that…that Kindred…” She waved the blaster at Karn. “In the middle of an unnamable activity!”
Lilli went white and Karn felt a growl rise in his throat. No wonder that little bitch, Priss, had insisted on making him penetrate Lilli! She’d been filming the whole thing! And no doubt she had edited out herself and all the rest of her group, leaving Lilli and himself as the only ones engaged in the illicit activity.
“Mother—” Lilli started but Mistress Mirabella shook her head.
“I don’t want to hear a word. You’re coming with me. And you,” she added, looking directly at Karn for the first time, “Are going straight to the Diluthian mines!”
“What?” Lilli looked at him in shock. “But, Mother, you can’t—”
“Oh yes I can!” Mistress Mirabella said grimly. “Give me the remote to his pain collar!”
“It doesn’t work,” Mistress Martinet said, speaking up for the first time since Lilli’s mother had come into the room. “I’ve tried it twice since your daughter and her bodyslave got here. He is completely out of control.”
“I’ll speak with you later,” Mistress Mirabella snapped at her. “Just keep all this to yourself and you’ll be compensated accordingly. But if you breathe a word of this to anyone…” She turned a menacing glare on the other woman which caused Mistress Martinet to blanch.
“I understand,” she said quickly. “Not a word, Lady Mirabella—I swear it.”
“Good. Now get out.” Mistress Mirabella jerked her chin at the door.
While her attention was momentarily distracted with the other Mistress, Karn decided to act. This looked like the only chance he was going to get. As Mistress Martinet headed for the doorway, he lunged for the blaster.
“Not so fast!” Mistress Mirabella jerked away before he could grab the weapon and threw a handful of small, metal beads at him. They stung when they hit him but they didn’t bounce off, as he would have expected. Instead, they began to flatten out and grow at the same time. Almost before he could blink, they had covered his entire body in a series of interconnected metal plates.
“What the fuck?” Karn growled, looking down at himself. He tried to pry one of the silver plates free, but his arms were already immobilized by the metal holding him in place. In fact, he realized with growing concern, his entire body was immobilized. Except for his face, he was completely encased in the interlocking metal plates—and it had taken less than three seconds!