Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

work
jutting up from the shoulders of her dress held the locks aloft for
her.
    The Countess was
hundreds of years old, the flesh crafting had been taking place well
before Aspen or anyone she knew were born. Her family were far, far
away, Aspen had never knowingly met any of them, but she knew that
the Countess sat far above them in the hierarchy. Outside of her
palaces, the woman was universally despised, but she could utterly
destroy anyone in her considerable sphere of influence, and Aspen saw
it happen more than once while she stood beside that throne. The
Countess used the law, blackmail, her own corporate empires, even her
own private military to destroy her enemies. She did so often, and
with pleasure.
    “The little Autumn
returns,” the Countess purred, her tailored voice high pitched but
soft. A woman in a simpler, long crimson dress holding a slim, high
powered hand scanner walked alongside the Countess. The device cost
as much as some small freighters, and it was pointed at Aspen. “What
have you done to yourself, girl?” she looked to the guards. “Get
that off of her immediately.”
    A button on the back of
her collar was pressed and the suit reverted to its inert sheet
state, falling off. Aspen caught it just in time, holding it to her
bosom but the Countess yanked it off of her and flung it across the
room with her inhumanly long fingers. Larken started taking his robe
off only to be pushed to the side. “Keep your clothes on, stupid
boy,” the Countess said. “I don’t need you for comparison, I
can see she’s ruined you as a matched pair, she may as well be some
freakish alien. I’ll still inspect her personally, the damage must
be assessed.”
    “Yes, Countess,”
Larken said, bowing deeply and straightening his clothes.
    This was the essence of
what Aspen hated about her life under the Countess. Nothing was hers,
even her body was property. The Countess flicked a lock of hair.
“Such a common brown colour,” her hand ran down her back. “Pasty
pale, and so fat. It is as though you have been hiding under a stone
from the sun, getting fat on grubs and worms. Where have you been,
child?”
    Aspen waited for the
inspection to continue, not expecting that she was being called on to
answer a question so soon after entering her presence.
    “Answer me, girl!”
the Countess shrieked, her voice not so smooth or pretty.
    “They kept me on a
ship, where I had to carry cargo,” Aspen said, the answer was ready
at hand thanks to many terrible daydreams where she imagined she was
recaptured. “It was very hard.”
    “I don’t believe
you,” the Countess said, leaning forward so she could try and look
Aspen in the eyes. “They found you at a dance club, you were
dressed like a commoner who was looking to breed with some thuggish
thing, the way you were writhing against him. I have the footage, but
I could barely stand watching it, my stomach is still unsettled. What
do you have to say for yourself?”
    “I’m sorry, I won’t
leave you again,” Aspen said as pleadingly as she could.
    The woman in the
crimson dress tsked and shook her head at the Countess.
    “Lying little bitch,”
the Countess hissed. “You’ve gone pale, and chubby,” she said,
cruelly pinching skin and a little flesh from Aspen’s belly and
twisting, pulling. “You should be bronze, just like Larken and
beautifully blonde, innocent creatures of nature. It’s what I paid
for!”
    Aspen suppressed the
urge to slap the Countess’s hand away, her face turned red by the
time she was released.
    “Hair grown too long,
and missing entirely in other places, it’s as if you don’t
realize how much work it was to have you made. You’re too stupid to
realize how perfect you were! Where there was texture and perfect
shape, you’ve bulged and made yourself plain. You ‘re not meant
to change at a whim like some…” she struggled to find the word.
    Nothing had ever made
her angrier than what was going on right at that instant,