The Awakening

by Shakir Rashaan

  I heard the phone ring while we were both trying to compose ourselves, and upon looking at the caller ID, I had a feeling reality was about to drop in again on another accord.

  “Hello?” Neferterri answered as she clicked on the speaker for the two of us to hear.

  “Mercedes, it’s Kitana.” Her voice was trembling, and this time it didn’t sound like it was from just hearing her voice.

  “What’s wrong, honey?” Neferterri’s ears perked up when she noticed the concerned tone in my voice. .

  “It’s Ice. He’s…he just left me. He wants a divorce.”

  23 RAMESSES

  Damn.

  Just when I thought things were finally beginning to clear up a little bit, Ice goes and gums up the works. Something didn’t sit right, and I had to know what the hell actually happened.

  Neferterri was on the phone with Kitana, getting the lowdown on what actually set Ice off: as it turned out, Ice took exception to Kitana being our submissive, even though he was submitting to Mistress Sinsual at the same time. He felt since she had me, she didn’t need him anymore, so, it was in both of their interests to be with other people and not be with each other anymore. What had me confused was why he felt it was worth saying the words he wanted a divorce from his wife? Did he have a change of heart about his wife being in the lifestyle or something, but he could still do his thing? I couldn’t figure it out, and I think I had to figure out what was on my shotgun partner’s mind before this union became broken beyond repair.

  I finally found him at one of the usual hangout spots out in Decatur, popping shots left and right like he was trying to forget about whatever it was that he’d just done. No one was messing with him at the bar, for fear he would snap. That’s always been the thing about Ice: once he’s pissed, he’s not easy to be around because of his temper.

  Right then, that was the last thing I was worried about.

  “Yo, Ice, talk to me, dawg,” I started. What I saw coming to greet me was an unexpected left hook that caught me flush across my cheek, knocking my glasses off my face. I forgot how hard he could hit someone, and I ended up trying to catch my balance against a chair while the whole bar got quiet.

  “What the fuck do you want, Kane?” I could tell Ice was in no mood to talk, because he was coming at me again with malice in his heart. I braced myself against what could’ve been coming next, because I honestly had not come to start a fight. “You got what you wanted; what the fuck do you need me for anymore, huh?”

  “What the hell are you talking about, kid?” I responded, trying to block the punches as they were coming at me. I finally got hold of him to get him to talk. “This is me, Kane; what is wrong with you?!?!”

  “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me, dude.” Ice broke loose from my grip and sat on a bar stool. “I made a decision, and my wife didn’t want to run with the idea. I wanted her to drop her commitment to you and be with me and Mistress, so we could submit to one and one only, and she refused. Right now, you’re my fucking problem.”

  He was actually pissed!

  I stood there in disbelief at my friend. We’d been boys since college, been through some pretty fucked-up situations in our time together, and some pretty damn good times as well. Hell, Kitana had chosen him over me back in the day, and now he wanted to play it out like I was the problem? To divorce your wife over something this petty just felt wrong as hell to me.

  “Ice, what has your Mistress said to you? I’ve been your boy for damn near ten years. We go way back…what the hell is creeping in your mind, dawg?” I wanted him to level with me, because something wasn’t adding up. He owed me that much, especially when it felt like our friendship was about to come to a screeching halt.

  He still wouldn’t answer me, so I unfortunately had to do something I really felt like I was going to regret afterward. I pulled him by the back of his collar, dragged him outside to his bike, and basically commanded him to inform me of his Mistress’ words to him. I didn’t want to pull the D/s card out in public view, but it did the trick. His eyes got big when he saw that side of me. It was a surreal moment for me, too.

  He leaned against his bike, shoulders slumped, eyes on the ground, like he didn’t have the strength to look at me, and he replied, “Mistress wants Kitana and me both, Sir. She feels like it will complete Her House as well, and She wanted me to convince my wife to leave Your consideration and submit to Her at my side, saying it will strengthen our bond to each other to submit to Her together.”

  I sat on my bike, speechless. Here I was, thinking I was being greedy about trying to keep Kitana and Angel within my House, and Sin was pulling her own power play to take Kitana away from me?

  I shook my head and sort of laughed to myself. Yes, Sin was a friend, but all’s fair in love and submissives. Had it been anyone else, I would’ve probably pulled her card and called her out in the community for breaking protocol. But I would have to deal with her later on tonight.

  Poor Ice. He was stuck in a really bad position. Because he feared his Mistress more than his wife, he may very well have ruined his marriage.

  Damn. How does a person get over that obstacle? Even if they were able to talk about this, knowing this revelation may really cause a rift between them, over some silliness based upon a Domina’s ego. The weirdest part was that Sin had a sub girl already, and I know She hadn’t released her because she had been loaned out to another Dom a couple weeks ago for training. It didn’t sound like Her, though. She, like most Dominas, had submissives of both genders coming at Her left and right.

  This was messy. But I owed it to my partner to help him straighten this out. He’d do it for me. I knew it.

  I grabbed him by the shoulders and made him look up at me. “I’ll square your Mistress, bruh. This was not your fault, and She knows She should be ashamed of herself for putting you in this position, if what you say is true,” I told him, trying to get him to release the stress in his mind and on his heart. He loves Kitana, this I knew. No one had the effect on him that she did, not even his newfound Mistress.

  “Thanks, K. I’m sorry about the punches, dawg. We’ve been through too much to let it come down like this.” Ice apologized, his demeanor changing to the positive with each passing word. “What about Kitana? I really fucked up, man.”

  “Kitana loves you, dawg. Never doubt that. It’ll take more than a misunderstanding to break you two down.”

  24 RAMESSES

  On the way to Sinsual’s house, I kept cycling the conversation with Ice in my head over and over again, making sure I hadn’t missed a single detail, anything that would lead me away from what really didn’t make any sense. Mistress Sinsual has been a part of the inner circle for damn near a decade. She’s been honorable in every sense of the word, and where she might have slipped, she’s made amends for the transgression. The dots weren’t connecting right, and I hated the doubt in my mind at that moment.

  Who do you trust?

  I drove past the Cascade Road exit, and it would only be a matter of time before I got out to where Sin lived in Mableton, so I needed to get my mind right and clear when I got there. There was no need in being indecisive at all. Ice was my partner in crime, a brother of the flesh. But I had to be honest with myself: would I have trusted another male submissive to make such claims against a respected Domina within the local community?

  I called my wife to let her know what caused Ice’s meltdown and he wanted to apologize and talk to Kitana while she was there. She said she understood and she would make sure Kitana and Ice would patch things up, even if she had to make Ice suffer for a day or two. I couldn’t argue the point because he could have sought out counsel on this before he had that confrontation so he could think things through. Sometimes it caused a problem for a new submissive to want to please their Dominant so badly they abandon all logic.

  There’d always been this fine line when it came to dealing with submissives for me. If they’d pretty much been upfront with me on a consistent basis, I w
ould respectfully go to bat for them. But if there was cause for me to think I may compromise my own honor because said submissive withheld some vital information from me? Then said submissive would go down in flames quickly. I made sure to try to stick to my mantra for as long as I’d been a Dominant. It was what Amenhotep has taught me, what my father taught me before I began my journey within this realm.

  I pulled into Sin’s subdivision, and already I felt my body heat beginning to rise. That always happened before I had to interrogate anyone, especially one so close to the inner circle. I got out of the truck and walked to her front door, wondering if tiger was at home or not. It was nearly seven in the evening, so he could be there, but then again, it wouldn’t matter much anyway. I told Sin over the phone that we needed to speak, Dominant to Dominant.

  Sin was a very striking woman, about Amenhotep’s age, in her late forties. I’ll admit my libidinous side had been lusting after her for a long time, but I knew she’s not the socially sexual type. Now, if there was space and opportunity, of course, I would have to make a call to my wife to inform her of what may transpire, just as an FYI. Those wanton feelings aside, I have always respected Sinsual and our longer conversations about our respective pasts as well as our shared passion for protocol. Which was why the accusations Ice levied were so confusing to me.

  Sin opened the door for me, and after trading the usual long hug, she led me into the living room and offered the chair for me to sit in while she stretched out on the couch. She could tell I was struggling with what I wanted to discuss with her, and to be honest, I was.

  I cut to the chase, rather than beat around the bush; I owed her that much. “We’ve been friends a long time, Sin, so be real with Me,” I hoped she would want to be civil in person to figure out why she felt the need to want to undercut me. “Did You suggest to Your other submissive under consideration, Ice, that Kitana needed to be with You?”

  Sinsual gave me this look like I had lost my mind. When I explained the events with Ice and Kitana, as well as the incident at the bar earlier, it finally started to take shape in her head.

  “That boy,” was all she could say as she shook her head. “he’s worse than what tiger was when I was breaking him in. Always too eager, and never listens.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You mean You didn’t tell him to convince his wife to leave our consideration?”

  Sinsual’s expression turned rather embarrassed. “I wondered out loud during one of his training sessions if it would be better if his wife were alongside of him, since she was doing so well in her training with You. Your friend is quite the hardheaded little son of a bitch.”

  I laughed hard on that statement. He was hardheaded during initiations into the Knights, too, so it was sounding more and more like a submissive trying to stay out of more trouble by creating little white lies to keep it from getting back to his Mistress.

  Still, I had to be sure to check this out, face to face. It has often happened that Dominants will try to sneak a submissive away from the touch of the one they are already under consideration of or collared to. Sometimes one has to face that type of situation head-on; otherwise it could be seen as weak in the minds of fellow Dominants in the community. Even if it was a friend, no one should be above reproach, not even me and my Beloved. Sure, we try to live honorably in the realm as Dominants, but every one of us makes a mistake or two in their journey.

  Sinsual shook her head at me. “I know You had to do what needed to be done, Ramesses, as I would have probably done the same of You. These days, it’s been more and more difficult to trust anyone in the community. All these newbies coming online and not caring about the rules of engagement, protocol, all that we hold dear in the realm.” She didn’t have to speak to that at all. It’s what a lot of the veterans had been frustrated with for the past several years, and what kept those like Amenhotep from even taking the risk of going online.

  “Yeah, I know what You mean, m’Lady,” I replied. “If it weren’t for some of the swingers we know who are curious about expanding into BDSM, I’d be hard pressed to find a female submissive nowadays.”

  “This reminds Me, m’Lord. I have a submissive who has approached Me who wants to serve a Domina. Do You think Neferterri would be interested? he is a bit new, but he has served a Domina before, albeit for a short time,” Sinsual asked me.

  Now, this presented quite the unique circumstance. For years, there had been many who had wanted to serve at the feet of Lady Neferterri, mainly because the male subs do talk. A lot of them have all stated to un-owned male subs that would listen that they would be honored to serve her if they were not already serving their current Dominas, and do quite enjoy when they are loaned out for her use and abuse. But like most Dominas, Neferterri was very particular about the submissives she chose to serve her, and they usually don’t last very long, once they realize the service does not require long sexual sessions. Imagine that?

  But there was also the other dynamic, between myself and said sub male. In the past, the sub males who presented themselves to her, also wanted to serve me as well, but they had a sexual agenda to go along with that servitude. With me being heterosexual, that simply was out of the question. In the grand scheme of things, I had to make sure I was not causing a monopoly over what subs can and cannot be acquired by the House.

  “Send the information to Her, m’Lady. I’m sure She will be interested in what You might be sending Her way.”

  25 RAMESSES

  I made a quick phone call over to Ice and Kitana’s house while driving home from Sinsual’s to make sure things were okay between them and that Kitana understood the reason why her husband acted so irrationally. Her voice changed, sounding like she was a teenager talking to her crush while she was on the phone with me.

  What was it about submissives when they heard their Dominant’s voice?

  Once she was reassured her husband never had any intentions of divorcing her, I turned the attention to her next visit with us, and continuing the next phase of her protocol training.

  I got through the door, and after checking on the kids to make sure they hadn’t torn up their playroom, I finally found my wife on the IMs, doing the usual juggling act between a few people.

  “Hey, babe, I just got off the phone with Kitana. It seems that things are back to normal, so to speak, at their house,” I told her, trying to read over her shoulder to make sense of the conversations she was having.

  “Hey baby, how is Sinsual doing?” my wife asked me as I quickly kissed her on the cheek. She seemed to be in a better mood after the situation I’d put her in earlier, and I quickly began to see why that was the case.

  I saw an unfamiliar screen name on the screen, and from the way it seemed, whoever it was, they had captured Neferterri’s attention for longer than five minutes.

  lady_neferterri: Hello…. Mistress Sinsual sent Me your name

  by_her_command: Good day Ma’am

  lady_neferterri: how are you?

  by_her_command: Hello, Dear Goddess, how may I be of service to You today?

  lady_neferterri: Are you new to this lifestyle?

  by_her_command: Yes Ma’am, I am very new to the lifestyle

  lady_neferterri: so what made you interested in this or started your quest so to say?

  by_her_command: Well Ma’am, I have always been the Dominant in command throughout my career and during my last marriage. I have always dreamed of being dominated and kneeling at the feet of a Goddess that I can respect and serve her in every aspect of her pleasure.

  lady_neferterri: how old are you? What is your vanilla name as well

  by_her_command: I am 26 Ma’am, and my name is Damian, Ma’am

  A youngster…

  New to the lifestyle, and he had managed to keep Neferterri from going off on him.

  This might be interesting after all. Sinsual didn’t waste any time getting the info to her.

  I continued to read the conversation as it happened, secretly wondering if he wo
uld slip up and say something off-color, or perhaps do what the other submissive males tended to always do before it was time: talk about sex.

  lady_neferterri: so do you know anyone in the BDSM community here in Atlanta?

  by_her_command: Yes Ma’am I do

  lady_neferterri: good

  lady_neferterri: do you have any questions for Me?

  by_her_command: No problem Ma’am, a question I have is what are You looking for in a submissive?

  lady_neferterri: first…honesty and trust

  lady_neferterri: must be compatible in that you don’t have to like everything I like but have a willingness to be open about new things

  lady_neferterri: be independent…I’m not looking for a slave…I want a submissive

  by_her_command: May I ask another question Ma’am?

  lady_neferterri: go ahead

  by_her_command: I am new to this and I have been claimed before, however, it didn’t work out because I realized the Domina was more about Herself than She was for me as Her sub. How would You treat Your sub on respect for his well-being and enjoyment of serving You? Are You a caring Domina of Your sub, or does caring about Your sub’s pleasure to serve You even a concern?

  lady_neferterri: very good questions

  Very good questions, indeed, I thought to myself. Neferterri looked over her shoulder at me with this grin on her face.

  “How the hell Sin decided to give this one up, I’ll never know. She giggled at the thought, especially when she knew how much trouble Sin had been going through with Ice. “But I’m not going to look a gift sub male in the mouth and say I don’t want him.”