Knot Their Omega (Craved Bonds #2)
Prologue
“Again, Leila. Try again!”
Cressida Kaye’s voice pierces the dimly lit room, filled with echoes of her frustration. Shadows stretch long across the walls as the sun sinks out of sight. The air is thick with the scent of sweat, exhaustion, and Cressida’s unrelenting anticipation.
In the center of the room stands the small, delicate frame of nine-year-old Leila Kaye.
It is a heart-wrenching sight.
Leila’s blonde hair hangs messily over her narrow shoulders. Her blue eyes appear dim and weary. Her face flushed and streaked with tears. Her small legs were trembling, evidently exhausted from standing too long.
And yet she soldiers on. Leila glances at her mother, taking note of her fixated gaze and her palpable anticipation. The young child bows her head and takes a deep breath before lifting her face to return her mother’s gaze.
Leila’s glare is focused. Her eyes fixed directly on Cressida sitting a few meters away from her.
Her pupils dilate. The skin on her neck tightens, revealing intense strain on her blood vessels.
She clenches her fists and visibly grits her teeth.
It is clear that she is pushing herself to her very limits.
“Yes… That’s it,” says Cressida, a small smile starting to form on her face as she watches Leila intensify her efforts to release her pheromones. “Keep going!” her voice pitching upwards with excitement as she rises from her seat, watching Leila in anticipation.
Leila smirks as her mother’s words meet her ears.
She is getting closer, and her mother can see it.
She just needs to keep going. All the long hours spent harnessing her ability will finally be worth it.
Her mother’s approval lies deliciously before her.
The admiration of everyone who will come to know that an Omega so young could fully master her pheromones lies tantalizingly close.
She focuses harder, clenches harder, and strains as hard as her tiny body would permit her.
And then she loses her balance and crumples to her knees. The tiny pores that she had strained so hard to partially open begin to close. Her visible blood vessels begin to disappear behind her skin again. Her head is bowed, crestfallen.
“No, damn it, Leila!” her mother yells. Her frustrations boil over as she swings and knocks over a vase, sending a piercing echo of the ceramic vase smashing against the floor.
“Why is this so hard for you? It has been three days now, and you have yet to muster a single pheromone attack!” Cressida adjusts the creases on her dress formed by her exertion at the now-destroyed vase.
“Please, Mom. I am tired. We have been here all day. Please,” Leila begs weakly, her head still bowed and her voice faint with exhaustion.
“Quiet!” The echo from Cressida’s voice reverberates through the room. The silence that follows is only briefly interrupted by the fading echo of her voice.
“We have only been here for the last five hours, and if it is going to take ten more hours for you to master the most basic parts of your pheromones, then that is how long we will be here.”
“Mom, please! I have not even had lunch. I am hungry. Please,” Leila manages to say despite her sobs. Her eyes are raised at her mother now, clearly alarmed at the prospect of ten more hours of relentless straining.
“The sooner you can master your pheromones and do as I have instructed, the sooner you can have lunch,” Cressida responds coldly.
Something about the way Cressida responds to her pleas shatters Leila. Five hours of relentless practice has drained her of energy and enthusiasm. Her stomach growls with hunger, but her mother’s unyielding gaze and scathing remarks offer no reprieve. Her sobs instantly morph into weeping.
“Why are you crying? This is not even difficult,” her mother scoffs, averting her gaze from her weeping daughter. As she turns to look at anything but her kneeling, crying child, she spots a maid with a tray of food who has evidently been standing by the door for a while.
“You… Set that down and come here,” Cressida says, beckoning the maid forward. The maid sets the tray down on a table and gingerly walks closer to her.
“Alright, Leila. I will show you one more time. Pay attention,” says her mother, glancing at Leila before returning her focus to the maid, who is now standing a few yards away from her.
Leila wipes her eyes and watches as Cressida bends her head slightly and effortlessly eases open her pores, releasing her pheromones directly at the maid.
Its effects are immediate.
In a flash, the maid drops to her knees, overwhelmed by Mrs. Kaye’s influence.
Her thighs tighten together, and her breathing becomes rapid.
She involuntarily sticks out her tongue over her lower lip and starts to drool.
The uncontrollable lust brought upon by the heat Mrs. Kaye’s pheromones forced her into makes her nothing more than an animal.
Leila watches on as the maid kneels, drooling and muttering inaudible words, clawing at her mother’s feet.
“Pathetic,” Cressida says, a disgusted expression on her face formed by the sensation of the crazed maid’s hand grazing her feet. “Now get out!”
The maid scurries out of the room in obedience to Mrs. Kaye’s command. Still slobbering, not yet far enough for the effects of the pheromones to wane.
“You see how easy that was? Now try again, Leila. And do not disappoint me this time.”
Leila slowly rises to her feet and gazes at her mother once again. She inhales and concentrates, but she immediately falls back to her knees as she strains. Hunger, exhaustion, and innocent youth proving too much.
Her mother’s face is unreadable now, emotionless.
“The tutors said I have very strong pheromones. I will make it up to you, Mom. I am sorry,” Leila says in a defeated tone. She is no longer sobbing. She just looks sad.
“Of what use are powerful pheromones if you cannot use them, Leila?!” Cressida retorts.
Leila does not respond. She just kneels there, head bowed. The room is completely silent save for the sound of Leila's ragged breathing. Tears stream down her cheeks and onto the floor.
Cressida walks over and crouches, taking a closer look at her daughter. She reaches for her child's chin with her index finger and lifts her face, their eyes meeting. She is greeted by Leila's teary and exhausted eyes, and Leila is greeted by her mother’s unreadable stare.
“I am doing all of this for you, my child,” she says with conviction. “You have no idea what is at stake. You must be better and stronger. Do you understand?”
Stronger than who? Leila nods even though she does not understand.
“You are a Kaye. You must be the best. Always. You will not disappoint me. You will not disappoint our family.”
Her words still settling into her young daughter’s mind, Cressida gently wipes Leila's face off her drying tears. She pats her daughter’s head then gets up and starts to walk out of the room.
She stops abruptly at the door, freezing as though she forgot something. “We start again tomorrow at dawn,” she declares before finally exiting the room, leaving Leila still kneeling at its center.
Minutes pass, and Leila remains rooted to the center of the room, knees firmly on the wooden floor. The hallowed ambiance was interrupted by faint mutters coming from her tired lips.
“I am a Kaye. I must be the best. I will not disappoint mother. I will not disappoint my family.”