Description:

A Companion to Wolves is the story of a young nobleman, Isolfr, who is chosen to become a wolfcarl -- a warrior who is bonded to a fighting wolf. Isolfr is deeply drawn to the wolves, and though as his father's heir he can refuse the call, he chooses to go. 

The people of this wintry land depend on the wolfcarls to protect them from the threat of trolls and wyverns, though the supernatural creatures have not come in force for many years. Men are growing too confident. The wolfhealls are small, and the lords give them less respect than in former years.  But the winter of Isolfr’s bonding, the trolls come down from the north in far greater numbers than before, and the holding’s complaisance gives way to terror in the dark. 

Isolfr, now bonded to a queen wolf, Viradechtis, must learn where his honor lies, and discover the lengths to which he will to go when it, and love for his wolf, drive him.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Rising fantasy stars Monette (Mélusine) and Bear (Whiskey & Water) subvert the telepathic animal companion subgenre so thoroughly that it may never be the same. The inhabitants of a cold and perilous world grounded in Norse/Germanic mythology depend upon the brutally violent wolfcarls, men who bond telepathically with huge fighting trellwolves, to protect them from monstrous trolls and wyverns from further north. When the northern threat suddenly intensifies, Isolfr, a young wolfcarl, and his wolf-sister, Viradechtis, a Queen wolf destined to rule her own pack, are thrust into key roles in their civilization's desperate fight to survive. The meticulously crafted setting and powerful, often moving rendition of characters and relationships—human and nonhuman alike—result in a brutal and beautiful novel about the meaning of honor. Never blushing as they consider the ultimate sociological, sexual and moral underpinnings of a what-if often treated as coy wish-fulfillment fantasy, the authors have boldly created a fascinating world that begs further exploration. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

In a culture in which villages are protected by men bonded to giant telepathic wolves that constitute the key line of defense against trolls, who come from the north and leave devastation in their wake, those wolf-brethren are respected—and used as bogeys to scare misbehaving children. Njall, a jarl's son and heir, is chosen to fill his family's duty to the wolfheall. He goes, despite his father's disapproval, because the wolfheall is the only thing standing between his people and death. Chosen by a trellwolf bitch, he enters into the strange, brutal, ultimately fascinating world of the wolf-brethren. Monette and Bear pull no punches, neither with violence or sex. The world they depict is fraught with a sense of wonder rare even in fantasy, also with the traumatic aura of a place where nearly every custom is foreign. They have taken one of the most escapist of fantasy subgenres, in which humans and animals meld, and turned it into something powerful and surprisingly deeply human; certainly, both human and wolf politics play magnificently well. Schroeder, Regina