CARTER PAUSED ON HIS porch. The front door stood slightly ajar, and though he couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason, the sight made him uneasy.

He stepped inside, and his senses instantly went on high alert. There was a different scent in the house. One that was totally different from Piper, or the warm, milky scent of Theo. It wasn’t even Anna. No, this was completely different. His sense of smell had always been particularly keen, and right now his nose told him this new person was male.

Though his first instinct was to call out to Piper, he bit down on the words, clamping them between gritted teeth and forcing himself to stay quiet. All the hairs on his arms rose to attention, and the muscles across his neck and shoulders tensed. He didn’t know what was happening yet, but his body had gone into a fight or flight response. Deep inside him, his wolf growled a warning.

He moved slowly and as silently as his size would allow. The house should have been busy, with Piper and Anna most likely enjoying a coffee together—now that Piper was drinking coffee again—and Theo babbling or crying, but instead it was as though the house itself was holding its breath, and tension radiated through the walls. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

He followed his nose, which led him up the stairs, to the outside of their bedroom. The door stood slightly ajar.

Carter pressed himself closer, peering through the crack. In the window stood a strange man, and he was holding Theo. He was partially obscured by Piper standing with her back to him, and between them on the floor, Anna lay unconscious.

Immediately, he knew who this man was. Piper’s husband.

Fuck. How did he find her? Someone must have told him. He’d never have stumbled across her by accident. Someone who wanted to hurt him and Piper. A couple of names sprang to mind, but now wasn’t the time to start worrying about accusations. He needed to make sure Piper and Theo were all right.

“You’re trespassing,” he said, throwing open the door and stepping fully into the room. “Get the hell out of my house.”

Piper half turned to him, one hand held out. “Carter, no!”

No? What did she mean no? Didn’t she want him to help?

But then he caught a glimpse of silver in the sunlight, catching as it shone through the window directly behind the stranger. A knife. The man had a knife, and he was pressing it against Theo’s rounded, defenseless tummy.

“Son of a bitch,” Carter growled.

On the floor, Anna moaned and shifted slightly. At least she was still alive.

Piper looked terrified, and the sight made Carter want to kill the other man. But he couldn’t do anything while the other man was holding a knife to Theo.

What kind of sick fuck threatened a helpless baby to get back at his wife?

“How are you planning for this to pan out?” Carter asked, his teeth gritted.

The other man gave a wolfish smile. He looked to be older than both of them, in his forties, at least. No wonder Piper had been so horrified having to marry him at the age of sixteen. He must have been twice her age back then. “Since you ask, I was planning on torturing Piper for awhile to make her understand how much pain and humiliation she put me through by running out on me like that. Now you’re here, too, I can double the fun. Kill the baby to destroy Piper, and then kill Piper to destroy you.”

Piper had been right when she’d told him this man was cruel. He was more than cruel. He was insane.

“Then you’ll kill me, right?” Carter said, taking another step into the room.

“That sounds like a fitting ending to the story.”

Carter squared his shoulders. “And you think I’m just going to allow that to happen?”

“Carter, please.” Piper threw him a panicked look. He knew what the look said—that she didn’t want him to push the son of a bitch and risk getting Theo hurt. But these kinds of men were ultimately cowards. They picked on young women and children because they were the ones he didn’t expect to fight back.

He took another step.

Carter sought his memory to recall the man’s name—Fitch, or was it Finch, he thought she’d said.

Whatever it was, the other man tensed, his jaw going rigid. “Don’t take another step! I’ll do it, I swear I will.”

“Please, no!” Piper cried.

Theo had started to wail again, the breathy, hiccuppy cry of a child in distress. The sound was killing him, so he could only imagine how Piper must be feeling right now.

“It’s okay. No one is going to do anything stupid.”

Suddenly, in Finch’s arms, the baby began to change. Theo’s balled little fists became paws, and the broadening of his back caused the sleeper he wore to tear. From his flat little bottom, a curved tail appeared. His nose lengthened and turned black, creating a muzzle, and ears folded from the top of his head. Where previously there had been only pink gums, now Theo drew back his upper lip and snarled, revealing sharp little pup teeth.

And he put those teeth to good use.

With a ferocious snarl for something so small, he sank his little puppy teeth into the hand holding the knife. Finch gave a yell of shock and dropped what had been a baby only moments before, but was now a good-sized wolf-pup.

“Theo!” Piper yelled.

Carter saw his chance. Knowing he couldn’t waste a single second, he threw himself forward. In midair, he shifted into wolf form. His front paws hit Finch directly in the chest, sending the man stumbling backward. One of the tall windows of the property was right behind him, and the force of a huge wolf shoving him back was enough to make him hit it.

Glass exploded outward, and with it went Finch. Carter caught a glimpse of fear and understanding in the man’s eyes, his arms pinwheeling, before gravity took hold and he vanished out of view.

A second later, a massive crunch sounded from below as Finch hit the ground. From the street, someone screamed, “He’s dead. Oh my God, he’s dead!”

Piper ran to scoop up Theo, who’d shifted back to a baby again, pink and naked. Shifting took a huge amount of energy, and it was unusual for a baby of his age to manage it, and he wouldn’t have been able to hold the shift for long. She picked him up and hugged him tight, half crying as she did.

“Oh, my baby. My beautiful, brave baby boy.”

Knowing they’d have some serious explaining to do, Carter shifted back to man, and then went to his little family. He enveloped them both in his arms, feeling Piper shaking with emotion.

“Hush, it’s going to be all right,” he told them both. “He’s gone. You’re safe now. He’ll never hurt either of you again.”

“People are going to know now,” Piper said, looking up at him, her tears matting her eyelashes. “They’ll know the truth about who Theo’s real father is.”

He shook his head. “I don’t care. All I care about is that both of you are safe. Nothing else matters to me.”

And he held them both again until Piper’s tears finally subsided.