Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear.
A Companion to Wolves.
Tor. 2007
What lengths will you go to—for your honor and for the love of your wolf?
In a harsh northern land, the towns of men huddle close around the walled keeps of their lords. Those keeps, in turn, look to the wolfcarls—men bonded to huge fighting wolves—for their safety, when the trolls and their wyverns come down from the icy mountains to prey on manflesh.
Isolfr is a young nobleman who is called to the wolf pack. His father is hostile to the wolfcarls and refuses to send his sons, but Isolfr is deeply drawn to the wolves. When the konigenwolf, Vigdis, comes to visit with her human brother Hrolleif, the young man chooses to disobey his father and answer her summons.