Page 9 of Prickly as a Porcupine

“Is FUC really the good guys?”She leaned back to look into Joline’s eyes and read her face.

Her visage wrinkled in confusion.“Yes.Who told you they weren’t?”Joline’s dark brows drew closer together.

“I don’t want to talk about it.Not yet anyway.I don’t think you’d want to speak to me anymore if you knew.”She wiped her nose on the back of her hand.

“Ariel, I don’t know if that would be true.”

“I was one of the bad guys!”The truth bubbled out, despite her intent to keep it in.“The doctor I worked for manipulated me into helping.I see that now!How could I have been so naïve?So stupid?”She spat the words out as if they tasted bad.Hot tears streaked down her cheeks.

Joline patted her back.She finally said, “Some were made to do horrible things while being in captivity.Since it’s something FUC has been dealing with a lot recently, rescued shifters who were kidnapped and experimented on is something we discuss often in my classes.You are not alone in this.”

“But you don’t understand; Iwantedto help.He didn’t force me to do anything.”Ariel couldn’t believe she was admitting to this.She’d probably lose the only friend she had.

Joline nodded.“I know.We’re told that there are many others, just like you, who were brainwashed into helping.Or reluctantly helped to survive, or to protect someone they cared about.”Joline tucked a loose strand of Ariel’s hair behind her ear.“I will not judge you.And I will not pretend to know how I would act if I were in your shoes, or what choices I would have made.That didn’t happen to me, so I can’t guess.”

Ariel felt her body slacken now that she’d finally admitted it all.Maybe not in detail, but she spoke of the terrible things she did, and Joline didn’t lash out at her.Joline didn’t run away, either.But there was one thing that still bothered her.“But others fought back.”She thought about Gabby, the crow shifter.Gabby never did as Grimm asked.She even escaped from one of his cells, smashing nearly everything in her way to get out.Why wasn’t Ariel strong, like Gabby?

“We all react to traumatic situations differently.I’m not even sure there’s a right answer on how to respond in those circumstances.You’re a victim as much as any other patient here.”

Ariel shook her head.“Then why would I have this?”She lifted her pant leg to expose the ankle monitor.

Joline wrapped her arms around Ariel, comforting her as she would a small child.“Because you’re still healing, and they need to keep you safe.”

That was one way to look at it.Ariel wanted to argue that it was because they didn’t trust her, but she decided to hold her tongue.“I guess,” she muttered.She also wanted to add that she started out being held in a FUC cell, locked up from everyone else when she first arrived.Ariel decided to keep that to herself for the time being.She wiped her nose again on the back of her hand.Deciding to change the subject, she asked with a sniffle, “What were you doing up in the tree?”

Joline smiled, which brightened up her pretty face.“That’s how I relax.I was catching up on some reading before going back to my room.I can’t focus in the cafeteria, so I come out here after eating.”

“Oh.”She felt dumb.Joline did mention she liked being in trees while they talked earlier.She sighed, leaning back into the tree as Joline pushed a lock of hair out of Ariel’s face.Joline’s finger brushing briefly against her skin set butterflies fluttering in her stomach.Mingling with the other warring emotions, it wasn’t a good combination.“I should be going,” she blurted out, not wanting to sit with the discomfort of being vulnerable around someone who was one step up from a stranger.

“You can stay.I can find another tree if you need to clear your mind but want to be alone.”Joline’s brow wrinkled in concern.“It’s not like I own the tree,” she added with a giggle.That laugh was a glass of cold water on a hot day.

Ariel smiled despite feeling bad.“Thank you, but no.I should probably head back so they don’t think I’m planning an escape or something.I didn’t entirely have permission to run out on the agents who were questioning me.”She thought back to what they said.Her first reaction was anger over Dr.Grimm not freeing her in time to help with his plan.She didn’t even consider what he did or how it impacted those he did it to.Ariel hung her head.She was disgusted with herself.But she was also sick of feeling lost and helpless.“Maybe I’ll see if the counselor is available.We have a lot to discuss.”

Without another word, she walked back towards WANC, determined to locate Paige and find a way out of her mental turmoil.

Joline blinked, watching Ariel march across the grass like she was on a mission.She wasn’t sure what happened, but it seemed a fire was lit within the shrew shifter.She hoped it would help Ariel to find herself as she grappled with the truth she was just now coming around to.

While Ariel hadn’t gone into details about what exactly she’d been involved in, she’d admitted to helping one of the bad guys FUC was after.A knot twisted in Joline’s stomach.She wanted to be supportive, but a part of her didn’t think she would ever help out a bad guy.

Ariel isn’t the bad guy,she reminded herself.She’s a victim.That couldn’t be more obvious by the way she’d cried while coming to terms with what had been inflicted upon her.Joline herself had never been in a situation like that, so she couldn’t know what lengths people would go to survive—which could include coming to believe that their victimizer actually has their best interests in mind while they did depraved things to them.Joline sighed.She hoped she’d never have to know what that was like.She could not even begin to imagine what Ariel must be going through...or the guilt she now felt.

As she went to climb back into her tree to get back to reading, movement on the ground, outside the group of trees, caught her attention.She narrowed her eyes, looking out into the sea of grass.Some of the blades were swaying, and it didn’t appear to be from the wind.Something was moving, hidden within the grass.Her shifter abilities wouldn’t be of any help enhancing her eyesight—as porcupines are nearsighted—but Joline called on her animal side to strengthen her sense of smell.

She sniffed the air.Ariel’s sweet scent still floated in the air, a soft caress to her senses.Flowers in bloom, mixed with tree pollen, tickled her nostrils next.They were followed by the silky scent of snake and… something almost musty, like an old pillow.What was that?Feathers?Joline shook her head.She knew what birds smelled like, and that wasn’t it.Her nose wasn’t making any sense.Maybe it was more challenging than she realized to sort through the scents at a campus filled with shifters.The odors could be a jumbled mess.

Joline looked back to the patch of grass that had just been swaying.Nothing seemed out of place anymore; the blades were perfectly still.Had it been her imagination?All this talk of evil shifter scientists must have been giving her the heebie-jeebies.Her imagination must be running amok.

Joline turned to climb the tree, but a nagging feeling thrummed in her gut.Something was out of place, and she couldn’t write it off as just her imagination.After glancing around for security guards or free agents and finding none, she decided to investigate for herself.She threw the book into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder before trudging off through the neatly trimmed green space.

The grass 20 feet in front of her swayed again, moving in a different direction from the rest of the blades.She stopped, her heart hammering in her chest.Was it a shifter spying on her?Or was it a wild animal?At least she finally believed it wasn’t her imagination.Tingling, similar to the eruption of goosebumps, spread down her arms as she brought out her quills in a partial shift.If it were a cadet practicing, she’d look stupid, but she’d rather be safe than sorry.

As she inched closer, she could hear something slithering.So, there was a snake.Her nose wasn’t wrong.She sighed, feeling stupid.Snakes were common in the woods.But then, why was her gut still keeping her on guard, and what accounted for the not-bird feather smell?Joline wouldn’t stop looking until her eyes confirmed what the creature was.The slithering stopped as she was about a few feet from the sound.She leaned forward, peering into the green grass.Beady eyes of a green snake glared up at her.It flicked its tongue, but then Joline screeched as a full set of jade-hued, feathered wings flared up from the sides of the snake.What the hell?

She immediately forced herself to calm down and remember where she was.This was a campus full of shifters, many of whom had hybrid animal types due to the experiments that had been forced upon them.“Sorry for the scream,” she quickly said.“I’m not really used to being around snakes.Who are you?”Joline asked, not wanting to offend a patient.The person clearly was experimented on.“Do you need help?”

Instead of answering, the snake pumped its green wings, lifting its small body off the ground.It stuck its forked tongue out at her as it hovered before flying off.

“Wait!I didn’t mean to…” before she could finish the apology, the snake disappeared into the foliage of a nearby tree.