The Awakening

by Shakir Rashaan

  I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the events of the past few weeks. I had turned my business over to my apprentice, who was more than ready; I’d just been holding him back out of selfishness. For all intents and purposes, “inheriting” a fortune from my Mentor and Father figure to do with as I saw fit, as long as I oversaw his American business interests as well as start a few enterprises of my own. Finally, dealing with the pain and scariness of nearly losing my life and watching someone who was once so close to me, die so senselessly. But it gave me a different perspective on things as well. It was not like I was taking my life for granted to begin with, but I had to be conscious of what reckless decisions can lead to as well. I still have to grow old and see my grandchildren, and live long enough to reminisce on these times that we were living in now.

  The night before the wedding, we all sat down as friends for an informal dinner, to enjoy one another more than anything else. No titles. No protocol. And it was good. Amenhotep got a chance to express his love for his soon-to-be wife in a way that re-enforced the bonds that a lot of the other married couples could appreciate and embrace. My wife never looked more radiant, and Kitana never looked more priceless as our submissive princess.

  So much so, that I felt that a change was in order.

  Once the dinner was over, we went back to our suite, so that we could tell our little one of the news of her new name. Neferterri and I had been discussing it for about a month, since her training had been going along so smoothly and surprisingly quickly. She’d only been ours for a few weeks shy of four months now, but it felt proper to take things up a notch.

  Kitana was speechless. She had been waiting patiently for the name change, having submitted the names that she had wanted to be referred by, but also knowing that it would be our ultimate decision. Upon hearing that she would be kneeling for the final time under her old name and rising with her new name, the tears of joy that slowly flowed were the most beautiful things that I had ever seen. It proved to us that she was ready to take the next step.

  So, it gave us delicious pleasure to have her rise from her knees to complete her awakening and be recognized as sajira, which is Egyptian, meaning “little one.”

  We also informed her that upon the first of the year, only a few weeks away, that we would celebrate her new transformation with a lavish, public collaring ceremony. It would be the perfect way to christen the new and improved Palace, which would be undergoing some expansion and modifications from what my Mentor originally had planned. After all, He did want me to put my mark on the place, since it’s now to be under my watch. While we were in Dubai, I’d received an unexpected phone call that further made it a magical occasion for the House of Kemet-Ka. When I informed my Beloved of what had transpired, she couldn’t stop smiling, either.

  The next morning was to be spent in the company of God and friends as the two became one for as long as they both shall live. The groom, wearing a cream-colored tuxedo, nearly blended into the sand upon which he stood. The bride, beaming in an ivory halter dress considering the heat of the Persian Gulf, was draped in rubies from head to toe. The sun was close to its apex in the sky, and the party was dressed in crimson and black, as the couple had requested. Sealed with a kiss, the union would forever be recognized, and the audience applauded at the completion of the ceremony.

  It was a wondrous day indeed…one that would not soon be forgotten.

  And yet…it was only the beginning.

  IF YOU ENJOYED “THE AWAKENING,” BE SURE TO CHECK OUT

  Book II LEGACY

  THE CHRONICLES OF THE NUBIAN UNDERWORLD

  BY SHAKIR RASHAAN

  COMING SOON FROM STREBOR BOOKS

  8 RAMESSES

  Reagan International Airport, Arlington, Virginia.

  I walked off the plane and began making my way down to baggage claim to collect my luggage, and I was already plotting in my head how I was going to deal with the task in front of me.

  I walked by the limousine drivers and noticed a rather stacked and stout young lady, about six feet tall, maybe an inch short of that, holding a sign that displayed my full legal name.

  I won’t trip; I was surprised to see her there to greet me, especially when I hadn’t seen her before in my life. But it was a pleasant surprise to be escorted by such a lovely creature indeed.

  I guess in hindsight I shouldn’t have been too surprised, as I’d suspected that Master Seti would spare no expense in making my stay in the DMV—the DC/Maryland/Virginia area—as pleasant as he could. I’d called the day prior to my departure from Vegas to inform him of my arrival; such is general protocol with any of the Elders that are associated with Amenhotep.

  The driver was very attractive. Her distinct features put me in mind of the Italian peninsula. She was dressed in a pencil skirt, just above the knee, and matching blazer, both black in color, and four-inch heels. Her lean, muscular frame left me no doubt that she could handle my luggage with little assistance from me, no matter how much my vanilla chivalry would want to oblige her.

  “Good afternoon, m’Lord, this girl’s name is slave nadia. Please follow me to the car, Sir,” nadia announced as she loaded the bags onto a cart and led me out to the parking lot. “Master has alerted this girl of Your presence, which is why i am driving You to the House, Sir. Master didn’t want You lost. He informed this girl that it has been a few years since You’ve been out this way.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at that statement.

  “Yes, slave nadia, your Master has a way of reminding Me of such things in the most grandiose fashion possible,” I replied as we made it to the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid limousine.

  I got in the backseat while nadia placed the luggage in the cargo area to prepare for the ride back to the estate. On the middle console was a USA Today newspaper, and packed in a cooler in the opposite seat from me was an assortment of soft drinks and juices, and a bag of roasted peanuts.

  “Master thought that You would like a light snack before Your arrival, m’Lord.” nadia read my mind before I could ask.

  I couldn’t help but smile, though, as this had sajira written all over this one. I would say shamise as well, but there was no telling if she was at the house at the time that nadia called to confirm the items that were sitting on the side of me.

  “Remind Me to thank your Master upon our arrival, slave nadia,” I responded to her as she slid into the front seat of the car. I noticed a slight blush spread across her face at my statement. That meant she knew that she would be properly spanked for following her Master’s protocol to the letter.

  We made the trek, beginning from U.S. Route 1 heading toward I-395, passing through the intersecting streets that crisscrossed and made up the Alexandria area. I was taking a sip of the orange juice bottle by the time we crossed over I-395 and continued south heading toward Mount Vernon.

  I was reading the paper as we passed by the shopping malls and department stores, going from the commercial into the residential area, when I could feel eyes on me, trying to get a better look at what I was doing. I looked up and saw a gorgeous pair of hazel eyes staring intensely back at me for a moment, before those eyes softened and gave rise to a lust that their owner wanted to act upon, but she wasn’t quite sure if she should or not.

  nadia was shyly sneaking looks through the rearview mirror as she deftly moved through traffic. She tried to get a peek in right before the fork in the road would either take us to the estate or if we were heading to the Mount Vernon estate, the home of our nation’s first president.

  We kept this dance up for another half mile or so. Every time I caught her looking up at me, she giggled to herself and focused her eyes on the road again, trying to steal as many glances as she could before we arrived.

  I purposely began staring at her through the rearview mirror. The next time that our eyes locked, nadia found her fingers tracing the outline of the blazer. She nimbly lowered the mirror to an angle that I could view, and I saw that during this dance, nadia h
ad unbuttoned her blouse and revealed her bra. I licked my lips at the way the satin caressed her breasts.

  She blushed at my open satisfaction at her exposure, keeping one hand on the steering wheel, using her peripheral vision to keep her eye on the road and on me at the same time, and taking her free hand to expose her right nipple for my further enjoyment.

  By now, my manhood had made its presence very much aware to me, and I couldn’t ignore what it obviously wanted my mouth to say. But this was neither the time nor the place to engage in that type of mischief, as it would be a direct violation of the rules of engagement, and my reasonable half understood that. However, my libido silently crept into the far reaches of where I kept the “Beast” at bay as if to beckon, I have the key to unlock your cage; all you have to do is beg for it.

  I wanted her to beg so badly, it made me weak. I imagined her legs wrapped around the small of my back, growling in her ear as I took her in the backseat, the tint in the windows providing the perfect cover in broad daylight before finally getting on with completing the journey.

  nadia could sense my dilemma, and I could sense that she was in a bit of a quandary herself. The vehicle slowed for brief interludes, which alerted me to the intimation that she was not yet ready to end this dance.

  My intense stare into her now-bright green eyes let her know that I was straddling the thin line between commanding her to pull the vehicle over to the first secreted location for a clandestine and ravenous merging of two bodies and thinking better of it and commanding her to cover herself up before we arrived at the estate.

  I shook off the lustful state that I was in as best I could. I had further business to take care of, and I couldn’t allow myself to let the “chairman of the board” fuck things up just because it wanted to get wet for twenty minutes.

  nadia slowed down long enough to make the turn to the street where the estate was located, stopping the vehicle long enough for the two of us to gather ourselves and for her to straighten her uniform to look presentable once we entered the compound. Once all was back in its place, nadia put the truck back in gear and we headed toward the house once again.

  I didn’t mind the cat and mouse games too much. In fact, it was a bit refreshing to see such a lovely woman nonverbally flirting without the pretenses of titles and station. Well, at least not entirely. The fact that I am a Dominant in this realm, and a Dominant that nadia had developed a respect for, but she, in the brief time that we’d shared the same space, developed a passion that was predicated upon that respect for my station, and the good things that she had heard from her Master about me.

  That was fine by me. It’s not like I could not have had nadia hot and bothered under normal circumstances, but at the same time, it helped to not have had to put that litmus test out there.

  The next time she looked up at me, I gave a wink that let her know that I wouldn’t discuss this little interlude between us with her Master, and blew her a kiss from the backseat to consummate the brief dance between us.

  nadia returned the gesture of her own with a kiss in the mirror at me, letting me know that she enjoyed the dance as well, and a wink letting me know that we could continue the dance again, with her Master’s permission, whenever I was ready.

  Sometimes…it is great to be Pharaoh.

  9 shamise

  “What do you mean, you too?”

  sajira gave me a look that could have cut through glass.

  The look on my face let her know that this was going to be a rather long conversation between sister slaves.

  Since we were already finished with the cleaning duties that we were tasked with before Neferterri was due back to the house, we got more comfortable on the sectional so that we could bare souls.

  “Okay, sajira, i’m gonna level with you,” I began, trying to find the courage to explain myself. “i have been having the same type of rape fantasies that you have been having. i didn’t know how to bring it up until you admitted about what your Uber-dom was up to, and, well, here we are.”

  sajira slid closer to me on the couch, touching my hand as she stared into my eyes, trying to find something that would let her know that this was a cruel joke that I was playing on her.

  A few moments later, those same eyes that she was staring into gave her all she needed to know.

  “i really didn’t know who to tell, sis, honestly,” sajira began to confide, her eyes misting. “i eventually want to tell Daddy and Ma’am, but i really wasn’t sure what Their reaction would be to it.”

  Being the more experienced submissive, although I will admit my mindset is more slave-like than submissive now, I felt that my sister submissive needed to be brought up to speed on our Dominants. If anything, it would help settle her mind a little bit, and not be so fearful of them being judgmental. I felt as she did a few years ago, when I finally admitted that I wanted more intense public play, edgier play.

  “sis, Daddy and Ma’am do care very deeply for us; you do know that, right?” I asked, waiting for her reply.

  I finally got a hesitant nod from sajira, her little girl persona going into full mode. I brought her to me, stroking her hair, feeling her body finally stop trembling.

  “The Dominants that we have the pleasure and the honor to submit to have been around for a long time, sis,” I quietly told her, still stroking her cheek. “you and i both know that there are few like Them in the community, and i have been in this community longer than you, even though you knew Them from the swing side of things.”

  “Yes, i know, shamise.” sajira nodded. “Every time i’m on the online boards and i sign off with the House name, i get hit up by email from other submissives trying to find out how i’m able to do it.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that statement. That question has been around as long as the House has been in existence. Even in poly circles, they just can’t figure out how the submissives of the House are able to serve “two Masters.”

  “That’s okay, it’s not their business how we do what we do, sajira,” I retorted, kissing her cheek. “Just know that as long as you focus on your place and your responsibilities to Them, both as individuals and as a cohesive unit, then you will be fine.”

  I had this same conversation with jamii and nuru before as well, and it always felt like I had to constantly reassure them of their place in the House, which is how they ended up doing the stupid nonsense that they did in leaving, but this felt different. sajira was already friends of Daddy and Goddess before she made the transition over to the dark side.

  I’ll admit that it was tiresome to have to do that, and I had no intentions of repeating it again. I like her too much to have her go through those feelings when they weren’t necessary.

  “Do you want for us to request a free speech, period? we do have that right within the House,” I asked her, trying to comfort her a little. The free speech period gives us the opportunity to speak to our Dominants without fear of repercussions or the idea that we’re “topping from the bottom.?

  “Yes, sis, i would like that very much,” she answered, feeling a lot better about things now. “That would definitely help me, especially having you there.”

  “No problem, sajira,” I replied. “Now i need to worry about where i’m going to live, now that i’m back in the city.”

  sajira perked up on me almost as soon as I finished my pondering aloud. “you are staying with me, no exceptions, at least until you get your own place set up.”

  My eyebrow rose quickly, which caused sajira to giggle uncontrollably. “i was just saying, sis. you need to be somewhere close to the House, and i want you there with me. What do you say?”

  I had to admit, it was a tempting offer, but I had to wonder why she made the offer without talking to her husband. After all, it’s his house, too.

  “sis, don’t you think you need to speak to your husband about taking me in?” I had to ask, as she made the offer too quickly. “Is there something i need to be aware of?”

  “Well, sha
mise, to be honest,” she began, her body language definitely changing. “Things at home are tense right now. Ice has changed ever since he began to take his training seriously with his Mistress. i was thinking that maybe the both of us could help him balance out, because he’s not the same man that i married.”

  I was afraid she was going to say that.

  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in the midst of another power struggle or not. I’d just left one out in L.A. that had left me drained both mentally and physically. Yeah, sure, I had fun while going through it, but once the adrenaline rush was over, it really became a chore to keep up the mess.

  But, I did need a place to stay, and being with my sis would be good for us both. It would give us more time together to bond and have a little fun as well. I mean, I am a newly divorced millionaire now.

  “Okay, sis, i’ll stay with you,” I reluctantly accepted her offer. “It should be an interesting time, to say the least.”

  Credit: John Crooms Photography

  Shakir Rashaan currently lives in suburban Atlanta with his wife and two children. Rashaan’s catalog includes the series Chronicles of the Nubian Underworld and Deviant Intent, and two novels under his “alter ego,” Curtis Alexander Hamilton, titled All I Want… Is You and The Devil’s All-American. Other credits include several anthologies, including the bestselling Zane Presents Z-Rated: Chocolate Flava 3. You can see more of Rashaan at http://www.shakirrashaan.com.

  Visit the author:

  Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShakirRashaan

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Shakir.Rashaan

  Instagram: http://instagram.com/ShakirRashaan

  Email: shakir@shakirrashaan.com

  Blog: http://blog.shakirrashaan.com

  MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT

  SimonandSchuster.com

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Shakir-Rashaan

  Facebook.com/AtriaBooks