Betrayal

Bunker

Chapter 9

Sometime later we decided to come up for air from the basement and found my three mates sitting on the couch, surrounding the laptop. I walked over to them and leaned over the back of the couch to look over Liam's shoulder.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

He looked at me over his shoulder and said, "We have a problem."

I frowned at him. "What kind of problem?"

"Your uncle has put a bounty on your head for 5 million dollars underground. So that means we have a bigger problem because a lot of vampires were for the King and Queen, but there were also a lot of vampires on your uncle's side. I think we need to find a bunker close by until we get everything... situated with your powers. And I think it's only going to double the longer it takes." He shifted trying to keep his apprehension off of his face.

I nodded and looked from Liam to Jaxson and then to Aris. "Okay, let's find a bunker then. I had a feeling it would only be a matter of time before his patience with his men had worn out and he placed a bounty on my head."

"I believe there's an abandoned base near here and it has a bunker in it. Let's hope no one else will or have found it before we do." Ragnar said as he touched my lower back in support.

My body swayed towards him at the touch but I remained in my spot and ran my fingers through my hair. Is it always going to be like this with every mate? We just did it multiple times, my body needs to chill out. I chuckled softly under my breath as I maneuvered towards the fridge to grab a bottle of blood. I heard someone stand to follow me over and snuck his arm around to grab one for himself. Aris. I could feel his body brush against mine as he reached and I slowed my drinking from him standing so close to me.. He stepped back with a snicker in my ear and I growled low in my throat as I turned to face him.

"I hate teasing." I glanced from him to Ragnar and winked at him before giving Aris my full attention again.

"You haven't seen anything yet, Pen." He grinned at me with fang.

"Speaking of which, guys. Stop calling me Pen. I want to go by my birth name." I looked around the room to them.

They all turned to look at me with surprise. "Are you sure? It's only going to be easier to know it's you if they hear one of us say your name." Liam asked.

"If it makes you guys more comfortable in public to call me Pen, fine. But if it's just us, like this, my name please."

I was asking nicely even though it's not really a request. I haven't gone by my birth name in so long, it seems foreign to me and I don't like feeling like that. I wanted to remember my parents with all of the good memories, not the bad. Especially if I'm going to become Queen, I'm going to have to use my real name and not my fake one. Which is why it'll be easier if they start using it now rather than later.

"Anything for you, Princess." Ragnar said with a certain heat in his eyes that leaves me feeling warm all over.

I smiled in response. "Thank you guys."

****

We packed up the few things we had before moving out to find this abandoned base so we can hide better. I carried what I could with the men, not letting me grab much from the house before grabbing before I could. They continued to argue with me still carrying what little I had because I'm the future Queen but ignored them. I was used to doing things alone, which is why I was still carrying something, otherwise they'd have taken it all and left me with nothing and I hated it. I'm not an invalid, I could do things for myself and it's not like carrying a few bags with our essentials would hurt me in any way.

Jaxson decided to take off on his own to find an abandoned car to use to make things easier on all of us. So we waited at this empty gas station until he returned.

"How far did you say this place was?" I asked Liam.

"It's only about 15 miles towards the west, we could've sped there but it'll be easier with a car to carry everything." He said.

I sighed and decided to sit on this broken but still functional bench outside the empty gas station to wait for Jaxson to return.

Wouldn't you know, as soon as I sat down, Jaxson came pulling up in front of us with a beat up van.

"Very inconspicuous of you, Jaxson." I laughed. "Got the family van."

He smirked at me as he raised the hatch and started loading everything in. "Don't need a sports car to travel and we need the room for all of our supplies."

"Too true." Before I hop in one of the seats in the middle row.

Aris jumped into the van to sit beside me and Ragnar growled as he slammed the rolling door and walked around to sit in the front passenger seat. Liam's already sitting in the third row typing on the laptop.

Once everyone was loaded in, we took off and it really doesn't take much time at all to find the abandoned base. As we pulled up to the concrete structure, I took the time to look at our surroundings and saw no other cars in sight. We were in the middle of nowhere once again and it was time to unpack inside. I grabbed as many bags as I could before my men stopped me from grabbing anything else and headed inside the bunker.