Every Beauty Deserves a Beast

Chapter 1

Chapter one

[Ray’s POV]

I stared blankly at the letter Tom had sent me as I sat in my hospital bed. I had read it over and over ever since waking up from my induced coma a week ago. After I passed out from blood loss our officers had been able to override the terrorists and suspected it was just a ploy to annihilate our base – a suicide shooting.

Tom wrote of how I was found, lying in a pool of my own blood, and rushed to a doctor at the base to see if I was even able to be saved seeing as my pulse was so weak. Somehow, by sheer miracle, my stats settled enough for me to be shipped back to my small hometown to recover fully. He told me that, after a ‘suitable amount of time’, if I wanted to rejoin the air force I would need to be examined to see if my fitness reached the standard required to do my original job.

A low growl slipped through my teeth as I thought of the last part. What the hell did a ‘suitable amount of time’ mean? How long was that supposed to be? What the hell was I supposed to do if I couldn’t go back to being ground defence officer? I’d built my entire life around being in the air force. I lived, breathed and slept my job... and to find out I might not be able to do that... I couldn’t even fathom what the hell I was supposed to.

I sighed and looked down at my left leg. Beneath the hospital gown and bandages I could just imagine the two circular scars that rendered me slightly disabled at the moment. Only one bullet had passed through completely, leaving another scar at the back of my thigh but the doctors had to search for the one that was stuck inside. The two bullets that were shot into my thigh had done pretty serious damage and as a result I was in terrible pain.

A short man with thinning brown hair sauntered into my hospital room and offered me kind smile. I stared back at him, not an ounce of emotion showing on my face. I was always in a bad mood since waking up. I was a big man and the hospital beds were barely wide enough to hold me, the food (though slightly better than at the base) was horrid and lacking any of the nutrients I needed and the ever constant pain in my leg overrode the pain all over my body.

“Dr Mitchell” I greeted him in a deep monotone voice.

“Good morning Lieutenant Hodges, how’s the leg?” he asked me as he looked over my clipboard. I grunted and winced when I tried to shuffle back a little. “Still quite painful I see. I may have to up your dosage of painkillers” he mumbled.

He hummed a tuneless song as he went about checking my stats and the movement in my leg after checking how the rest of my wounds were healing. I had several stitches and soon-to-be scars all over my arms, legs and torso and my mind wondered to the saying my mother used to say to me whenever I developed a scar, ‘It’s just character building, sweetheart. Soon you’ll look back and see how much you went through. Even if you were covered from head to toe in scars... it’ll just mean you’re a walking storybook’

I ghost of a smile lit the corners of my mouth before I put my frown back on. I sat patiently as Dr Mitchell finished up. “So what’s the story Dr Mitchell?” I asked.

“Well, your stitches are all healing nicely along your torso, arms and right leg. The wound on your side from the metal shrapnel was infected but is healing quite well and shouldn’t be anything to worry about now” He sighed and continued, “Now... about your left leg Lieutenant. As you are very well aware of, you were shot twice. The bullet that was stuck in your leg was lodged in your femur and had to be surgically removed.

“There was enough force, however, to fracture your femur, it quite was a big fracture but luckily not actually broken. The other bullet that did go through all the way had damaged the hamstring portion of your adductor magnus-“