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“The lounge,” I say. “She can go over my lap.”

“Not in front of Nox!”

I freeze. Everyone freezes, even Fawn… except Nox, who issues a low, husky chuckle.

Well, that was interesting. I ask myself how I feel about this development, but a few different emotions are slamming around inside me, and it takes a while for them to settle.

Eiden’s eyes are locked on her pussy, which is on display with her over my shoulder.

Fawn twitches, her legs squeezing together, and her aroused scent saturates the air.

Eiden swallows.

I stroke my fingers over the back of her legs. I’m fucking hard, so that answers my question about how I feel. At first, I was unsure about how I would share her. I passed through acceptance and learned how hot it could be with Seven. Today, I find myself at the precipice of something extraordinary, something so intense that there is a danger I might spontaneously combust. “Are you making a little mess, Fawn?”

“Wolf… Please don’t make me say it!”

“Answer my question, Fawn, lest I decide Nox needs to be the one to punish you.”

“Oh, you know I am!”

“Good girl.” I stroke the back of her thigh lightly. She is not beating on my back anymore, so I slide her down into my arms.

She peeks at me under her lashes, and then her eyes widen as they drift past the open floor to the carnage of broken pottery and crumpled rugs. Her cheeks are pink. I don’t think all of that is the rush of blood from being over my shoulder.

I stride through to the lounge, the others following, past yet more destruction, before setting her on her feet before the couch—a patch of floor that has miraculously escaped the decimation—where I take a seat.

Seven, Eiden, and Nox take a seat on the opposite couch.

Her face is crimson as she stares at her toes, wringing her hands as she stands facing me in the V of my open thighs.

“Do you understand why it was dangerous for you to shift alone now?”

She shakes her head, and her pretty eyes plead for a reprieve. This is a lot for her to be disciplined and in front of her other mates.

I put my hands on her hips, drawing her closer before I lift her chin to meet her eyes.

“You have been closeted all your life. The things a young shifter should learn, you have not. You never got to be a child and play. That is not your fault. That is a tragedy due to circumstances beyond your control. But we are here now, and we must move forward safely. My wolf is not the same as me. Yes, we are more often aligned, but he is also driven by instincts I have had to learn to guide rather than control. It takes years of practice. Young pups would be watched by older pups and corrected if they did something wrong or dangerous. The younger wolf would respond to the older wolf’s authority, so the human and animal sides would grow in tandem. A wolf is different from a doe, just as a doe is different from a stag.You have heard about Eiden, how his stag did not reveal until he was older, and how he is yet learning to guide it, even though he is mature.” I pause to swipe the tears from her cheeks with the pads of my thumbs. “I am not angry with you, love. Only concerned about what might have happened. As it is, you have broken a few things, but not yourself. Now, you are upsetting Eiden and making a fuss about your discipline, which you know is due. If you are good for me and accept this, then he may comfort you when this is done.”

Fawn

He does not draw out the discipline. I go over his lap, and he spanks me. There are tears but they slow and eventually stop as I nestle on his lap while he purrs.

“There,” Wolf says. “You were a good girl accepting your discipline, and now you are forgiven.”

The sense of relief is profound.

My bottom stings, but I think it hurt more because it also hurt my pride. I feel foolish and guilty. I could have hurt myself. Worse, I could have hurt Blue, maybe cut his paws on the broken vase. I know Nox and Eiden were trying to make me feel better, saying they never liked it, and it was ugly, but it was wrong of me to go on a rampage like that inside the home. Seven told me my doe was a creature of instincts and that I was yet new to shifting. He wasn’t telling me I could not shift, only that I should do so safely. Instead of voicing my questions and asking him to explain what that meant, I presumed to know better.

For reasons that escape me in my heightened state of distress, I don’t like Nox seeing me like this.

Wolf is stern.

Nox is more so, and in ways I don’t fully understand.

“You are right. My doe is not sensible,” I say softly. “I don’t even think I can blame this on maturity or practice. It is just how she is. Also, she is either consumed with a need to chase and play or is a shameless hussy with mating on her mind. I don’t think we should let her play in front of other males.”

Nox snorts a laugh.