Claimed (Werewolf boyxboy)

Chapter 5

Ortiz

3  W E E K S  L A T E R

The days began to blur together as they passed, and I floated through them in an aimless, dissociative haze. The countless meetings, trainings, and patrols that I once attended with pride became nothing more than a tedious obligation, and I found myself counting the seconds until I could curl up underneath my weighted blanket at the culmination of every day.

To make matters worse, the pain in my chest got gradually worse as the days went on. The only time I noticed that the pain abated were when I supervised warrior training from afar, which was coincidentally also the time that Corey and I were in the closest proximity to one another. 

Over the past two and a half weeks it'd gotten so bad that I'd adopted a steady regimen of extra-strength painkillers I'd stolen from the infirmary to keep me from screaming at the top of my lungs as the sharp, stabbing pain flared every time I so much as took a step. The painkillers were some of the strongest, formulated to work on even the strongest of werewolves for life-threatening injuries. They were a welcome distraction from the torture of the past few weeks of my life. 

Whenever they entered my bloodstream I could quite literally feel the stress and pain lifting off of my shoulders and I simply floated through life in a state of semi-awareness, almost as if someone else was in control of my physical being and I was simply along for the ride. I'd found myself taking more and more each day to keep up with the amount of pain that was gradually getting worse over the days.

It was much better than restless nights in excruciating pain, knowing that the only remedy was the one thing I would never willingly admit I needed.

"Ortiz, did you even hear me?" 

I jumped in my seat at the sound of Osias's loud, grumbly voice, pulling myself out of my dissociative trance enough to be able to comprehend what was going on around me. 

"Yeah, sure, uh-huh." I replied after clearing my throat, crossing my arms and attempting to focus my blurry vision on Osias's perpetual resting bitch face and act as if I was paying attention to whatever topic we were discussing during our upper-rank meeting. His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

"Then what is your opinion on what I said?" 

A slight panic raised in my throat and I pursed my lips as I tried to figure out how to reply to him, made worse by the fact that I could practically feel Corey's eyes digging holes in the back of my head from the end of the long table. The mere thought of him sent a flicker of desire through me, but I quickly shoved it into a box and locked it into the back to my brain, which was much easier to do due to the numbing feeling the painkillers provided. 

I hesitated before deciding to go with the safest option to reply to Osias's question, which was always something that would stroke his huge ass ego. However, the cloudiness in my brain prevented me from forming any constructive words that would make my response even somewhat believable.

"Uh... Good...?" The word came out sounding more like a question than a confident statement, and I winced as Osias's eyes narrowed even further in a highly suspicious manner.

"Ortiz, stay after the meeting. I'd like to speak with you." He stated before turning back around to the giant TV that held what I assumed to be the new patrol plan. 

I could feel my face flare up, adopting a crimson glow. I sunk into the leather conference chair, grinding my teeth and ticking my jaw at the eyes I could feel staring at me with a judgmentally.