She took the kit from her bodyslave’s hands—it looked like a miniature black briefcase, Lilli thought numbly—and opened it. Inside were two long, silver syringes with wickedly sharp multi-needles. They were filled with a bright green formula that looked poisonous.
“Now, you’ll want to give her one in the evening about a week before she goes to the conception center and one the night right before she goes,” she instructed. “Of course, there are a few side effects.”
“Side…side effects?” Lilli finally managed to get out through lips that felt as dry as dust.
“Oh my, yes! There’s quite a strong ovulatory response. It made my Priss rather grumpy, don’t you know?” Lady Tempertant giggled. “But of course that’s necessary in order to get the womb ready for implantation by whatever sperm you pick. And it makes the process at the conception center so much easier.”
“It does?” Lady Mirabella frowned.
“Well, you know how large those conception injectors are. Why they can’t modify them to be a bit more manageable, I really don’t know.”
“You certainly have a point, there.” Lilli’s mother nodded sagely. “So how do the shots help?”
“Why, by the time the chemical cocktail in these finishes working on them, all the girls are just dying for the conception injection!” Lady Tempertant tapped the silver and glass syringes in the case meaningfully with one sharp fingernail. “Priss even insisted on going back twice—just to be certain the process had taken, of course,” she added.
“Mother!” Priss glared at her. “That’s private.”
“Sorry, my pet, but you can’t deny it’s true. The quick-grow formula is really quite strong,” Mistress Tempertant remarked.
“Yes, it is.” Priss’s frown was abruptly replaced by a thin, crafty smile. “Mother, don’t you think it would be better if you showed Mistress Mirabella how to give the injection? After all, didn’t she say that Lilliana is scheduled at the conception center in a week? So wouldn’t tonight be the best time to give her the first shot?”
“Well, you know, I do believe you’re right, my dear.” Lady Tempertant turned to Lilli’s mother. “Would you like me to show you?”
“Yes, indeed—please do!” Mistress Mirabella nodded eagerly.
“Very well. Now, it goes in the inner thigh…”
And Lady Tempertant plucked one of the syringes out of the box and came towards Lilli.
Seventeen
Up until that moment, Lilli had been held in a kind of trance—frozen in place by the awful things being said. She kept thinking to herself that the other women could talk all they wanted but the minute everyone left she was going to tell her mother she didn’t feel ready to have a baby yet. Why, she had only just come of age herself! She had no wish to suddenly get pregnant!
But now, with Lady Tempertant bearing down on her with that awful syringe and its multi-needle spikes leaking bright green fluid, she found it was too late.
“Stop!” She turned to her mother belatedly. “Mother, wait—can’t we talk about this?”
“What’s there to talk about, Lilliana?” her mother snapped. “Mistress Tempertant has graciously offered to give you your first injection. Now hold still and take it!”
“But I don’t want it!” Lilli protested wildly, still backing away. She wished desperately that she hadn’t sent Karn away. She was certain the big Kindred would have had her back. But she was all alone, with no one to help her. What was she going to do?”
“Is this a problem?” Lady Tempertant frowned. “Does your daughter not wish to be in style?”
“Oh, she’s just scared of needles—that’s all!” Lilli’s mother said quickly. “H’urk—Tonlor—hold her!”
Two of her mother’s hulking bodyslaves came quickly to grab Lilli by her arms. She struggled but there was no helping it—they were so much stronger than her and they obeyed her mother without question.
“Please!” she begged, feeling tears sting her eyes. Her throat felt thick and her heart was pounding. “Mother, please—I don’t want this!”
“Hush, Lilliana and don’t be a baby!” her mother scolded angrily. “It’ll be over in a moment!”
Lilli choked back a sob—there was no help here. Above all things, her mother hated to be out of fashion. And since they lived outside of Opulex, falling behind the times and being thought of as a “country bumpkin” was her greatest fear.
Bending down, Lady Tempertant pressed the wickedly sharp end of the multi-needle to the inside of Lilli’s thigh. Lilli gasped as she felt the bite of a thousand tiny pricks as the metal spikes sank into her flesh. The next moment she had a painful itching sensation as the burning liquid invaded her flesh.
“No!” she cried but it was more of a moan.
It was too late—the deed had been done and she’d been injected with the awful quick-grow hormone stuff. Who knew what would happen to her now?
“There—see? All done,” Lady Tempertant straightened up briskly and put the first syringe back in the case. “And you only need one more on the night before you go to the conception center. Before you know it, you’ll have a baby bump just like my Priss.”
She smiled at her daughter who nodded and smiled back. Then she turned her smile on Lilli and it became a smug sneer.
“Enjoy getting impregnated, Lilliana,” she purred. “I’m sure you’ll find it very entertaining. Oh, and tell H’rare if I ever see him again, I’ll have him castrated,” she added in an off-hand way.
Then she and her mother and the rest of the Mistresses waved goodbye and left.
Lilli watched them go, feeling strange and somehow detached from her own body. The place where she had been injected was painfully tender but all she could think about was the fact that she wasn’t ready to have a baby yet and she didn’t know what she was going to do.
Eighteen
“Little Mistress, what’s wrong?” Karn looked at his new Mistress with concern. She’d sent him and H’rare away as the banquet was ending and he’d placed the other bodyslave in the kitchens, which seemed like a safe place for him. He could help with the serving and hopefully escape Lady Mirabella’s notice. Then Karn had gone back up to Lilli’s suite to wait for her.
But when she came in, she seemed detached and distant. And…were those tear tracks on her pale cheeks? Karn needed to make sure.
“Mistress,” he said again, since she hadn’t answered him. “What’s wrong?”
“I…I don’t…I can’t talk about it.” Avoiding his eyes, she went to the bed and laid face down on it. “Please, Karn—just leave me alone. You can have the rest of the night off.” Her voice was muffled in the bedclothes but she sounded very close to tears.
Karn knew he ought to go—this was the perfect opportunity to explore the rest of the vast mansion and find the information he was seeking. He especially wanted to see if he could locate the Kindred warrior who had been accused of murder and sentenced to execution.
But he couldn’t leave just yet. Not when Lilli was so upset. He couldn’t help himself—he had to know what was wrong.
“Come on now, little Mistress,” he murmured, going to sit on the bed beside her. “It can’t be as bad as all that, can it?”
“Yes, it can.” Lilli’s voice was barely a whisper, but he could hear the quiver in it.
“What happened?” Karn asked. “Did that Priss bitch say or do something else to you after you sent me away?”
Just the thought made him clench his hands into fists. That little sadist was a piece of work, all right! He didn’t like the way she tried to win him away from Lilli, just to hurt her.
“You could say that.” Lilli turned her head so that he could see at least the side of her face. She looked miserable, Karn thought, and his heart squeezed in his chest.
“What did she do?” he demanded. “I thought we got her pretty good with the seed-shooting contest. And you probably saved her bodyslave’s life,” he added. “If you hadn’t won him, he’d be off to the Dilut
hian mines in a matter of days.”
“I’m glad he’s okay,” Lilli whispered. “But, well, I’m not.”
“What happened?” Karn urged. He put a hand on her back, feeling her soft skin through the silky, see-through top she still wore. “Please tell me, little Mistress.”
“I…she…” Lilli’s face twisted in a way that showed she was trying not to cry. “She told my mother that I wanted…wanted to get impregnated—like the rest of the girls,” she whispered. “You know I don’t but she convinced my mother to give me the first quick-grow shot. And now Mother’s on the viewscreen this minute making an appointment for me at the conception center for the end of the week!”
“What?” Karn frowned. “That’s fucking awful, Lilli! Can’t you tell her no? That you don’t want to do it?”
Lilli shook her head.
“It’s all the rage right now and Mother is so afraid of falling out of fashion. She’ll do anything to keep up with the Mistresses who live in Opulex.”
“Well, that doesn’t give her the right to force you to have a baby!” Karn said indignantly.
“I tried to tell her I didn’t want one—that I wasn’t ready. But she wouldn’t…wouldn’t listen.”
Lilli’s words ended in a sob and she buried her face in her arms, her shoulders shaking with muted grief.
Karn sat there feeling helpless. His heart ached for Lilli. He wanted desperately to solve this problem for her, but it seemed to be beyond him. How could he, in his role as a lowly bodyslave, stop the evil Mistress Mirabella from forcing her daughter to have a baby before she felt ready? There was nothing he could do. Nothing that wouldn’t end up with him being executed or sent to the Diluthian mines for insubordination, that was.
Nothing but try to comfort Lilli.
“Come here, little Mistress,” he murmured, turning her over. Her face was red from crying as he pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.
“Karn…” She buried her face in his chest and sobbed miserably. “Karn, I’m not ready! I might not mind having a baby if I had someone to help me raise it. But I don’t want to just have one and then shove it off on a nannybot or send it to a convent. I can’t…I just can’t.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” Karn said fiercely. He frowned thoughtfully. “But you know…who says you have to?”
“Who says?” Lilli looked up at him, her brown eyes still filled with tears. “Why, Mother says. And she’ll be so angry she’ll probably disinherit me if I don’t show up at the conception center!”
Karn was thinking hard.
“Okay, she wants you to go to the center. But tell me this—does the conception process always work?”
“Well…no.” Lilli sniffed. “I’ve heard of some Mistresses having to try two or three or even seven or eight times. And with some it never takes and they have to have their baby in an artificial womb—which is very unfashionable,” she added.
“I’m sure it is,” Karn said dryly. “But listen, why not go to the center and just not have the process done.”
“What?” Lilli looked scandalized. “Are you serious?”
“Of course I am!” Karn told her. “Listen, why not let your Mother think you’ve had the impregnation procedure done and that it didn’t take? Then you don’t have to have a baby you’re not ready for, and it won’t be your fault.”
Lilli’s tear-streaked face brightened.
“You know, the process is fully automated. So it’s not like there’s an attendant who can tell on me for not having it done.”
“Sounds like the way to go, then,” Karn remarked.
“Oh, do you really think that would work? You think I could pull it off?”
Karn shrugged.
“Why not? Unless your mother comes in the center with you, I don’t see how she could know you didn’t really have the procedure done.”
“She won’t,” Lilli said quickly. “She’s already talking about sending me by myself—well, with you along, of course—because she’s going to be busy that day.”
“Well, there you go.” Karn grinned at her. “Problem solved.”
“You know…you could be right.” A tentative smile came over her face as she looked up at him. “Karn, what would I do without you?”
“Get impregnated by some cold machine, I guess.” He shook his head and grinned at her. “Luckily for you, I am here.”
“I am lucky to have you.” Lilli sighed and snuggled in his arms and looked up at him. “Tell me something—why do I feel so comfortable around you?” she asked and yawned. “Why do I feel like you’re the piece of my life that I’ve been missing for years without even knowing it?”
“I don’t know, little Mistress.” Karn cuddled her close. “But I kind of feel the same way about you,” he admitted—both to himself and to her.
What was happening to him? Was he going soft? He was on a mission here, he reminded himself. He had to find the Kindred warriors who had been taken by the Yonites as bodyslaves and get that information back to the Mother Ship.
And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to stop holding Lilli. The very full day and the emotional release of her tears seemed to have tired her out. She cuddled against his chest like a sleepy kitten and sighed contentedly.
“You’re falling asleep, little Mistress,” Karn murmured. “Let’s get you changed for bed. Where’s your nightdress?”
“In the closet. One of the drawers on…” Lilli yawned. “On the right.”
Karn laid her gently on the bed and went to find the garment in question. After searching through several drawers, he finally found a sheer, silky white gown as virginal and innocent as Lilli herself.
He also found a pair of long white sleep trousers made of the same silky material for himself. Were they the remnant of some former bodyslave who had been sent to the mines by Lilli’s mother? The thought didn’t bear thinking about. Karn grabbed them along with the nightdress—at least they had a crotch, which made them preferable to the black leather trousers he was wearing now.
Coming back to the bed, he helped Lilli undress—yawning all the time—and got her into the soft little nightdress. He took down her hair, letting it flow free over her shoulders, and removed the diamond nipple drops as well. Then he tucked her under the covers and—very gently because he couldn’t help himself—placed a tender kiss on her forehead.
This seemed to wake Lilli up again because as he turned to go, she reached for him.
“Karn,” she begged, putting a hand on his arm. “Don’t go. Sleep with me tonight.”
Karn frowned.
“Sleep with you? Is that proper, little Mistress?”
She shook her head, her honey blonde curls tumbled around her face.
“I don’t care about that. I want you beside me—please?”
Karn couldn’t deny her. Exchanging the uncomfortable bodyslave gear for the sleep trousers, he slipped under the covers with her.
Lilli turned to him at once and pillowed her head on his chest.
“Mmm, you’re so warm, Karn,” she murmured and yawned again before snuggling even closer to him.
Karn put an arm around her and relished the feel of her soft, curvy body pressed against his own. This was certainly not the way he’d expected to end his first night as a bodyslave on Yonnie Six, but he wasn’t complaining.
Later, when she was completely asleep, he would get up and search for Mistress Mirabella’s private study. But for now, he told himself, he would simply enjoy holding the curvy little female in his arms.
She felt so right there—it was a shame their relationship was only temporary.
The thought made his heart fist in his chest and he pushed it away. As long as he was here, he would live in the moment, he promised himself. He would get his mission accomplished, but he wouldn’t think about the end or leaving Lilli. He would stay with her and care for her as long as he could…
It was the only thing he could do.
Nineteen
Lilli
woke up the next morning because her leg was tingling. The inside of her left thigh felt so strange and the tingling seemed to be moving…changing. What was wrong with her?
She shifted and felt an unfamiliar sensation—someone else was in the bed with her.
At first she thought she was back at the convent and one of the other girls had climbed in her bunk in the middle of the night to keep warm. The convent was built of centuries-old solid gray stone which seemed to hold in the cold and chill no matter what season or temperature it was outside.
But none of the other girls at the convent had been so big…or so muscular. And none of them had smelled so good. A warm, dark, masculine spice that seemed to awaken all her senses and make the tingling in her leg move up to the tips of her breasts and between her legs.
The tingling got stronger and Lilli shifted and squeezed her thighs together tightly, trying to ease the ache which was growing there. This action pressed her bottom against the person behind her and she felt a hard lump rubbing between her thighs.
Mmm, feels good, Lilli thought. Still half asleep, she parted her thighs a bit and tilted her hips backwards. This pressed the hard lump directly against her outer pussy lips, which felt even better.
With a little moan, Lilli widened her stance, opening her thighs and pressing back hard, so that the heated ridge of flesh parted her outer lips and rubbed her sensitive inner folds.
It wasn’t exactly an ideal angle, but suddenly she felt so hot and needy between her legs, she couldn’t seem to help herself. She moaned again and pressed harder, working herself against the hardness, getting closer and closer to the peak she so desperately needed to reach…
“Having fun, little Mistress?” a deep voice rumbled in her ear.
Lilli gasped and froze, uncertain of what was going on and who was behind her.
Karn! whispered a little voice in her head as she finally came fully awake. Your new bodyslave—remember? You asked him to sleep with you and now you’re rubbing against him like a she-slink in heat!
Protecting His Mistress...Book 24 in the Kindred Tales Series Page 8