Chapter 4

Kitten found herself in a room that looked a lot like the medieval dungeon room at the House Of Pain. Except for two copies of herself, the room was empty. One was wearing an outfit that would be considered modest, even by Earth Federation rules, and the other was wearing the outfit Matt gave her to wear when he took her to the House of Pain. Somehow she knew that the two copies of herself were her evil twin and her true self.

Kitten couldn’t make out what they were saying to each other, but she could tell they were arguing over something. She approached them and as she approached she realized that the evil twin wasn’t completely solid, she could see through her; then she started to be able to make out what they were saying.

(TS:)’I want to play today.’

(ET:)’You are so pathetic it hurts. You don’t, or rather you shouldn’t, need a man to tell you what to do.’

“Break it up, both of you.” Kitten said to her-selves. She glared at the evil twin. “You,” she said to the evil twin, “ are nothing more than a camouflage suit I created to hide from the Earth Federation authorities. We aren’t in the Earth Federation now and I don’t need you any more.” she said and the evil twin faded completely away. Kitten knew she wasn’t gone for good, but it should be awhile before she returns. She turned to her inner self. “And you, get a grip; it’s only been one fucking day. I don’t need you throwing a temper tantrum in my head all day.”

Kitten woke up. It was Monday morning and she felt anxious and irritable.

Back on Eire she had a friend who got hooked on Dragon’s Cum. A couple of times she had helped nurse her friend through withdrawal. That is what she felt like now, a Dragon’s Cum addict going through withdrawal.

Oh god, she thought to herself, I have to get a grip, it has only been one day.

Matt watched as Kitten approached the picnic area. She was wearing a simple green tunic dress with a low cut v neckline and a hemline midway between mid-thigh and crotch length.

Kitten was doing her best to hide how bad she was feeling and tried to be as seductive as possible. She reached up and gave Matt a passionate kiss. When they broke off, she clung to him and asked, “Can’t we play just a little bit today? Please Master, I need it so bad it hurts.”

(TS:)’It does hurt, and I want to play today! I want to play so bad... ‘

Matt felt his cock harden, it was tempting, so very tempting, but something his father told him once went through his mind: Above all else, a dominant must control himself. When he can’t control himself, he won’t be able to control a submissive or a concubine. Matt took a deep breath, centered himself to reinforce his self-control and said, “No, Mrs. Christen asked me on behalf of the lawyer you will be seeing this afternoon, to give you some time to rest and think. I gave her my word that I would and I will not go back on that.”

Suddenly Kitten’s shoulder’s drooped and the light went out of the expression on her face. She looked like she was in pain.

(TS:)’Is Master rejecting us? Noooo! Please Master don’t do that to us.’

Kitten started to shake uncontrollably. Fear, anxiety and anger ran through her mind and body. She struggled not to lash out at Matt.

(TS:)’How dare he reject us! Oh God, please don’t reject us Master!’

Kitten clutched herself with her arms and turned her back on Matt.

He grabbed her and pulled her back against his chest. “Tell me what is wrong.” he demanded in his most commanding voice.

Kitten closed her eyes for a moment. She was having trouble focusing, having trouble thinking clearly. A minute passed and then two. She was suffering and he was the cause of her suffering, it was difficult to tell him that. Finally she took a deep breath and managed to collect herself enough to reply. “I had a friend back on Eire, she was addicted to Dragon’s Cum and I had to help nurse her through withdrawal a few times.” she said. “That is the best way I can describe what I am feeling. Everything we did last week was better than my wildest fantasies. I feel like I became addicted to you and to the intense play last week and now I am going through withdrawal pains.”

Matt tightened his grip on Kitten. He whispered in her ear “You are helpless in my grasp. Whether I am with you or not, whether we are playing or not, as long as you wear my collar you are still in my grasp, still helpless. Close your eye’s and bask in your helplessness for a while and hopefully that will help.”

While Kitten followed his instructions, Matt used his comms implant to access Dominion net through his tablet hands-free. He generally either avoided using the implant or at least went through the motions of manually controlling his tablet because using the implant tended to creep out people who didn’t have one, but right now, any distraction would be put down to having Kitten in his arms and she wasn’t in a position to notice.

He got from her context that Dragon’s Cum was some sort of drug, but he hadn’t heard of it and was curious. What he found was that there is a plant native to Eire that produces a thick, dark-red, tar-like sap. That sap is both flammable and caustic, so the plant got named Dragon’s Weed. The sap also contained a potent and highly addictive hallucinogenic compound. The process of extracting the hallucinogen yielded a reddish liquid with a consistency similar to semen. This drug was generally consumed by drinking it and users reported that it produced a mild burning sensation in the mouth and throat. This, combined with the physical resemblance to semen and the name of the plant it was extracted from, resulted in the street name ‘Dragon’s Cum’. Both the drug and live Dragon’s Weed have been exported from Eire; and the drug, while not common off Eire, can be found throughout the colonies.

He stood there and held her until the 10 minute warning bell rang. As he watched her walk off to her first class, she still wasn’t fully back to normal; but she seemed calmer than she had before. He hoped it would be enough to get her through the day.

Right before the first lunch period, Mrs. Christen had gotten calls from a couple of Katherine O’Keeffe’s teachers. They reported that Katherine looked, and was acting like, she was going through some kind of drug withdrawal. She knew that both Matt and Kitten were in the first lunch period and she was headed out towards the picnic area to find out what was going on.

Matt, Kitten, Danny, Valkari and Brenda met up for lunch. Matt was shocked at Kitten’s appearance. She was worse than before. She was now visibly shaking. “I’m sorry master. It seemed to help at first, but it only made things worse.” Kitten whispered to him as they stood in the cafeteria line.

After they got through the cafeteria line Danny grabbed Matt’s shoulder and held him back. “Go ahead and find a table. I want to ask Matt something, we’ll catch up.” he said to the girls.

After the girls had moved off looking for a table, Danny turned to Matt and asked “What the hell is up with my sister today? She’s been acting weird since we got up this morning.”

Matt thought for a moment and decided that Danny had a right to know what was going on. “Apparently, she has become addicted to me and the intense play we engaged in last week and now she is suffering very real withdrawal pains.” he said.

Matt and Danny caught up with the girls just as the girls found and claimed an open table. The group talked as they ate, mostly about school, music and local hangout spots. Kitten kept whispering very raunchy suggestions in Matt’s ear and rubbing against him. It was taking all the control he had to not bend her over the table and fuck her from behind.

(TS:)<in a whining voice> ‘Master, please don’t ignore me like this. I can’t take it any more. I’ll do anything to get you to play with me at this point, even force you to punish me.’

Suddenly Kitten jumped up and yelled “Stop ignoring me you bastard!” at the top of her lungs and then she slapped him across the face.

(ET:)’Yes, it’s about time! Maybe now we can be free of this monster!’

(TS:)’Free? No! Oh God, what have I done? Please Master, forgive me.’ <sobbing>

When she realized what she had done her face went ashen and she dropped to her knees and started sobbing. She fell to one side and curled up into a fetal position. She was shaking uncontrollably. She started to whimper as if in physical pain.

Matt grabbed her shoulders, stood her up and hugged her. When she had calmed down some she whispered in his ear “I am sorry master, I don’t know what came over me. Please don’t send me away.”

Matt laughed and said “Don’t lie, we both know why you did it. I can understand how you feel and I won’t release you for it, but you must still be punished very severely for striking me. You are mine as long as you wear my collar.” Matt said. “My collar isn’t coming off of you unless you want to take it off. Do you want to take my collar off?”

(ET:)’Yes, please take this damn collar off.’

(TS:)’No, I would rather die than take HIS collar off.’

“No master, I don’t want to take your collar off and I know I have to be punished for what I did.” she answered him.

Matt and Kitten both became aware of Mrs. Christen standing next to them. They turned towards her and she demanded to know “What just happened?”

“How much did you see?” Matt asked in response.

“I was coming to find Kitten because of reports I received from some of her morning teachers and I saw her stand up, heard her yell at you and then saw her slap you. What I want to know is why.” Mrs. Christen answered.

“I’ll give you an explanation, but not here and I need you to release me from the promise I gave you.” Matt said.

“We’ll go to my office,” the counselor said, “and you are released from your promise. I know it’s not fair to ask you not to give her any immediate punishment for this.”

Once they were in the privacy of Mrs. Christen’s office, Matt began to explain, “Kitten’s behavior last week was exemplary. I put her through some very extreme situations and she didn’t even blink. It seems that Kitten actually became addicted to the very intense play last week. This morning she asked me to play today. I told her no and explained that I had given you a promise that we would not play today. At lunch she tried tempting me again and when I didn’t react she slapped me. Kitten, is there anything you want to add?”

Kitten took a deep breath, then described the conversation she had had yesterday with her mother. She turned to Matt and said, “I took my mother’s advice and did some research. I know my expectations were out of line, but I still crave that intense play. I am not foolish enough to think I can make that kind of adjustment that easily. Master, I will need your patience and help with this.”

Matt gave Kitten a kiss and said, “You will have both, but you will still be disciplined if you allow it to reach the level that it reached today in the future.”

“I understand master.” Kitten replied.

“I have the responsibility to meet your expectations as my submissive and to deserve your respect. If I were to go to easy on you, then you could lose respect for me.” Matt said.

“Thank you both for explaining things. A couple of Kitten’s teacher’s were concerned that she seemed to be going through drug withdrawal. I will give the two of you some privacy to deal with Kitten’s punishment. I will be back in about 30 minutes with the school nurse to verify that Kitten is okay.”

Matt and Kitten were alone in Mrs. Christen’s office. “Remove your dress and bend over the desk.” Matt ordered.

“Yes Master.” Kitten replied and obeyed as quickly as she could.

(ET:)’You vile deviant, look what you’ve gotten us into! This monster is going to beat us again and this time he’s angry!’

(TS:)<whining> ‘I didn’t mean to. All I wanted to do was play a little. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make master angry.’

(MS:)’But you did, and now you have to accept your punishment.’ said a third voice that sounded like Kitten’s mother.

(TS:)’Who are you?’

(ET:)’Yes, who the fuck are you?’

(MS:)’Scram.’ the new voice said to the Evil Twin, who fled in fright. To Kitten’s true self she said ‘I am you, only grown up.’

When Kitten had removed her dress and was bent over the desk he said, “Place your forehead on the desk and put your hands on the back of your head. You are going to receive 40 lashes on your ass and thighs from my belt, but know that this is not your full punishment. I can not do much more here at school without causing issues. I will have to consider further punishment. If you break position for any reason and don’t make it back into position before the next lash falls, we start over from the beginning.”

“Yes Master.” Kitten replied again and positioned herself as instructed.

(TS:)’I can’t wait.’

(MS:)’We certainly enjoy pain/impact play, but you should not be eager for real punishment.’

Matt took his belt off and doubled it over, holding the ends in one hand. “Count the lashes as you have before.” he said as he brought the belt down on Kitten’s ass.

(TS:)’I’m sorry Master, I’m sorry!’

<Smack> Kitten squeaked more in surprise than pain. “One. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

Matt watched Kitten and waited until she showed signs of relaxing a bit. This time he targeted her thighs.

<Smack> This time she grunted in pain. “Two. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

He continued on alternating blows between her ass and thighs, waiting each time for her to relax from the prior blow.

<Smack> Kitten grunted in pain. “Three. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

<Smack> <grunt> “Four. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

(TS:)’This feels so good... ‘

<Smack> <grunt> “Five. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

<Smack> <grunt> “Six. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

(TS:)’I hope this will last long enough for us to cum from Master’s belt.’

<Smack> <grunt> “Seven. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

<Smack> <grunt> “Eight. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

(MS:)’No! This is supposed to be punishment, not fun. We will NOT cum from real punishment.’

<Smack> <grunt> “Nine. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

<Smack> <grunt> “Ten. Thank you Master, may I have another?” she counted.

With the eleventh blow, grunts turned to groans and on 15, grunts turned to screams; but she never missed a count. Matt was watching Kitten carefully as he administered her lashes. Her pussy was showing some signs of arousal, but not nearly as much as at a similar point on Saturday. This was good, she was reacting appropriately to punishment vs play.

As the count rose to twenty, Kitten was tempted to start begging for mercy. She resisted the urge, as she knew that striking her master was one of the worst offenses she could have committed.

At 30 lashes Matt’s arm grew tired and he switched the belt to his other hand. The last ten lashes fell and Kitten never missed a count.

(MS:)’We have made it this far ... We WILL NOT CUM under Master’s Belt.’

Matt sat down in one of the comfortable chairs that Mrs. Christen kept in her office and ordered, “Come, lay your body across my lap.” Kitten went over to Matt and positioned her body across his lap. Matt stroked her hair and whispered, “You took your punishment very well, I am pleased.”

“Thank you Master.” Kitten replied.

(MS:)’Remember this IS a punishment’

Mrs Christen returned with the school nurse, Miss Balls. The nurse examined Kitten, then applied a salve to her ass and thighs. Matt told Kitten to re-dress and they were both told to return to class.

Kitten and her parents were shown into the lawyer’s office.

“Hello, I’m Ronnette Paul.” the lawyer introduced herself. She offered her hand to Kitten, “You must be Katherine O’Keeffe.”

Kitten shook the lawyer’s hand and said, “Call me Kitten.”

(TS:)’Meow! I love this name.’

Ronnette turned to Kitten’s father. “And you are?” she asked.

“I am Brian O’Keeffe, Kitten’s father and this is her mother Mary.” Brian O’Keeffe responded introducing himself and his wife.

“Please have a seat.” Ronnette said, indicating a number of chairs around her office. Kitten sat in the chair that was already directly in front of Ronnette’s desk and her father pulled over two more chairs and placed one on either side of Kitten. Brian sat to his daughter’s left and his wife sat to her right.

“The information I was given said that Katherine, excuse me, Kitten needs to be instructed in the forms and options for marriage contracts on Dominion; with emphasis on bound marriage.” Ronnette said. “Is this correct?” she asked.

“Yes.” Kitten replied.

“My wife and I also wish to re-negotiate our marriage under Dominion law and need to understand the proper legal forms and options.” Brian added.

(ET:)’Your mother must be insane to change her wedding contract with your father... ‘

(MS:)’Behave. She knows better than you do what is best for her. She cannot be totally foolish as she has already spent so many years with our father. She knows better than you do what is best for her and for the preservation of her relationship with our father. Wait until you have spent a few decades with a lover to start criticizing about this.’

“Why don’t you tell me about your background, so I have some idea where to start.”

Kitten turned to her father. Brian began to tell their tale, “We are originally from Eire, which is currently under Earth Federation occupation and has been for 80 years. Our clan ran the largest construction company on Eire. Prior to the EF takeover, Eire had a sexually liberal culture. BDSM was accepted, though it didn’t have the explicit legal support that it does here. My clan was involved in a number of sexual practices that would be deemed deviant under EF law.”

He continued, “Around 40 years ago, several Earth based interstellar companies tried moving into the construction field on Eire. They had little luck, as no one other than the occupation government would do business with them. Then they tried buying out the locals with insanely high offers. A few took the money, most didn’t; and my clan was among those that refused.”

“Twenty years ago, all of the local construction firms started experiencing a string of accidents. There were a few injuries, but none of the accidents were fatal. My grandfather managed to put together proof that the accidents were the result of sabotage by the interstellar companies. He took the proof to the planetary governor, who was sympathetic to the locals. His ability to help the locals was limited by Earth Federation rules, but the proof my grandfather had was enough to force the interstellar corporations to back off for a while.”

“Six years ago, the old planetary governor pushed his luck too far trying to help a 16 year old girl who was convicted of sexual deviancy, on only the word of the son of an EF official whom she had spurned publicly. The man who replaced him was thoroughly in the pockets of the interstellar companies trying to take over the construction business on Eire. The acts of sabotage resumed, only this time we started to have fatalities. Still our clan held out.”

“Two years ago, one of my cousins got caught up in a raid against an underground sex club. All of a sudden, we had to deal not only with the sabotage by the interstellar corporations, but the occupation government was crawling all over us. While most of the clan wanted to continue the fight, my siblings and I saw the writing on the wall. We were all going to end up dead or in prison. We started to plan for escape.”

“We started to sell everything we could. Eight months ago, we went into hiding and found someone willing to smuggle us out of EF territory for a price. Once we were out of EF territory, we booked passage on a ship headed to Dominion. We have only been on Dominion for a few months.”

“Wow,” Ronnette said, “That is some tale. I guess I will start with the very basics then. Feel free to ask questions at any time. Marriage on Dominion is handled as a contract. The government here has no interest in the number or genders of the parties to the marriage contract. The government provides a number of different base contracts you can choose from, but you can also write your own from scratch if desired.”

“The marriage contract needs to cover the responsibilities that each party has to the others, this includes consent for sex. You can get as specific with the terms as you like. For the sexual consent, this can get down to minimums and maximums for how often, positions/acts allowed and / or disallowed. The division of the marital assets, in the case that the contract is dissolved; either due to the death of one party or if the contract is dissolved by mutual consent. It should also include powers of attorney between the parties, so that one party can act on another’s behalf in an emergency. This can be as general or as specific as the parties choose to make it.”

“All marriage contracts contain a clause defining the contract as non-transferable and non-assignable. With only one exception, that will be discussed later, a contract is not considered a marriage contract without it.”

“All marriage contracts can and should be filed with the county clerk’s office. It’s not a requirement, but it provides a certified copy of the contract in the event of a dispute over terms or if you lose your personal copy. In most counties there is a modest fee for filing the contract.”

“Before I start going over the different types of marriage contracts, I want to talk about divorce, or rather it’s equivalent, on Dominion. A marriage contract, like any other contract, can be dissolved by the mutual consent of the parties. This would trigger the property division clauses. However, on Dominion, there is no such thing as a no-fault unilateral divorce.”

“To force a unilateral divorce, you have to show a breach of the marriage contract by one of the parties. Property division in this case would start from the division defined in the contract. The non-breaching parties may be due damages, depending on the nature and severity of the breach. These damages would be taken first from the breaching party’s share of the marital assets.”

“Are there any questions so far?” Ronnette asked.

(MS:)’That’s fine for me so far... ‘

“Not so far.” Kitten responded.

“OK, I will start covering the different kinds of marriage contracts.” Ronnette began. “First is the Mutually Exclusive contract. This type of contract replicates the terms of monogamous marriage as it exists in most other jurisdictions. Property division is a 50/50 split. The biggest difference between this contract and standard marriage terms in other jurisdictions, is that consent for sex is explicit, if a bit generic in the default contract. The terms of this contract will be used in adjudicating marriages formed elsewhere in Dominion’s courts. It is also the thing that gets immigrant couples in trouble the most often.”

“Semi-Exclusive Marriage contracts are used primarily for all female group marriages. The terms allow any existing party to seek to bring any additional party into the marriage. The standard property division in this form is based on shares, determined by how much each party added in percentage terms to total marital assets and or total marital income.”

“Non-Mutually Exclusive contracts are used for polygamous marriages, and sometimes for all female groups with a more dominant female, not interested in BDSM as a lifestyle. The terms of this contract allow the husband or lead female to seek marriage to other females, but the other parties are obligated to remain exclusive within the marriage. The terms generally allow for sexual relations between the wives, but I have seen a couple done where the wives had to remain exclusive explicitly to the husband. The standard property division here is similar to the mutually exclusive marriage, except that more than two parties are involved. In the event of a breakup of a non-mutually exclusive marriage involving ‘n’ parties, each party would be entitled to 1/nth of the marital assets.”

“Are there any questions so far?” Ronnette asked.

“No.” Kitten said then asked, “When do we get to the good parts?”

(MS:)’BE PATIENT... ‘

“Now actually.” Ronnette laughed. “The legal name for a master/slave or concubinage marriage is Non-Mutually Exclusive Bound. We will spend more time covering this contract type, both because this is your specific area of interest and they tend to be more complicated.”

“This contract adds BDSM master/slave terms, on top of a standard non-mutually exclusive marriage contract. In general, the terms obligate the master to provide housing, food, clothing (in most cases) and medical care for the concubine. The concubine is obligated to obey any and all order’s from the master, unless the order is covered under one of the limits; which we will cover later. It also contains a more explicit and detailed consent for sex than most of the other marriage contract types.”

“Property division on dissolution in a concubinage marriage works significantly differently from the other contracts. In this case, the concubine retains any property she came into the marriage with and gets a fixed payout that is based on an amount specified in the contract, times the number of years the marriage lasts. Just to warn you, so you aren’t shocked by it during the negotiations, your particular master is likely to offer an annual payout of around a hundred kilograms. At his income level, the annual amount will generally be placed in a trust or escrow account that you would be able to access in the event that the marriage ends.”

“Do you know what a safe word and a warning word are?” Ronnette asked.

(MS:)’Yes, we do know about this... ‘

“A safe word is a word or phrase that a submissive uses to halt play because she is at an emotional or physical limit. I haven’t heard of a warning word before.” Kitten answered.

“A warning word is similar to the safe word; but instead of a signal to stop, it is a signal that you are becoming uncomfortable, but are still willing to let the dominant continue.” Ronnette explained. “Both will be written into the contract and you should think about them ahead of the negotiations, but don’t get dead set on something in particular, as your master may have his own ideas and may want to stay consistent with all of his concubines to avoid confusion.”

“The next section deals with the escape clause and contract sealing. Generally a bound marriage contract will contain an escape clause that allows the concubine to unilaterally terminate the marriage. This escape clause carries an expiration date, after which it can no longer be exercised. After the escape clause has expired, the contract is considered sealed and the concubine can no longer unilaterally end the marriage.”

“What’s that all about and how does it work?” Kitten asked.

Ronnette answered, “With other types of marriage contracts, the specific terms are usually negotiated during the engagement and then the final contract is signed either just before, just after, or during the wedding ceremony. Originally, bound marriages worked the same. However, operating strictly on a verbal agreement can leave a dominant in a legally ambiguous situation. Over time, dominants pushed for shorter and shorter engagements. This led to the undesirable situation where potential concubines either pushed for limits the dominants found excessive or they made hasty decisions they later regretted, which also caused problems for their masters.”

“No one is quite sure who first started the idea of the escape clause, but it caught on fairly quickly. Over time the social arrangements in the BDSM community have evolved around the escape clause; so that now a woman applies to submit to a specific master, who will test the applicant for suitability, then offer a contract with an escape clause as quickly as they deem feasible. It isn’t considered an engagement until the contract has been signed. A relatively small, usually informal, submission ceremony will be held that is considered equivalent to an engagement party. A more formal submission ceremony, that is similar to a wedding ceremony, will be held at the point the contract seals.”