The companion

Toby

It was totally unexpected and magical. When I saw Melissa there, I smelled honey and wildflowers. My wolf went crazy. He didn't want to dance anymore and ignored the ballerina. She was the principal for Melissa. She's a cutie. She's studying to be a teacher and I want to take her to my pack. But I need to go meet her parents and participate in the next mating ceremony.

We agreed to meet soon to arrange everything. I was just worried about Vicky. But Melissa's brother, Frederico, was already having an affair with Vicky and I thought that in the end the two would end up understanding each other.

We were just worried that some werewolf would be in the audience and might mention this incident. What would happen?

Anyway, now we had to wait. They left the next day, after lunch. It was funny that I no longer felt jealous or horny for Vicky, only sisterly and affectionate love. But that was the power of the bond in me. I didn't know how she was feeling. And I didn't want to pressure her into telling me.

When the brothers left, I felt a little embarrassed and lost for words with Vicky. I could tell she was holding back.

Vicky

Toby, you look radiant. I'm so happy for him. The son of a bitch finally found a partner!

"You did it! Here I am, rejecting half the world, feeling sorry for you, and in one month you've solved your whole life! I hope she makes you happy, man, because if she doesn't, she's going to have a hellish enemy."

Toby

Vicky laughed, a bright, jagged sound that broke into a sob, tears spilling down her cheeks. It was good to see her like that—raw, real, no walls up.

Authentic.

I pulled her into a hug, my own eyes stinging, and let the tears come too. We stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in each other, the air thick with everything we didn’t need to say.

“You know I love you,” I murmured into her hair, my voice rough. “I’ll always love you, in a different way. But you’re my family.”

“I know, you piece of shit,” she said, her voice muffled against my chest, half-laughing, half-crying. “I can’t stand seeing you get the best grade in school, and now I can’t stand you with your partner.”

I pulled back, wiping at my face, grinning despite the ache. “And what’s up with Fred? What does he want with you?”

“Fred’s cool,” she said, sniffling as she leaned against the couch. “His partner died. He doesn’t know if he’s got a second-chance mate out there. He asked me to try dating—just see where it goes. I don’t know yet. Maybe. I need to take it slow, you know.”

“By the Goddess,” I said, eyes widening in mock horror, “if he finds out how many kisses we’ve swapped, how many times I’ve grabbed your ass, he’ll kill me!”

She made a serious face, lips pursed—then burst out laughing, the sound bouncing off the walls. “If Melissa finds out, I’m not sure I’ll live to be an old lady crashing at your place. She’ll poison me the first time I show up! You know how it is.” She broke into a goofy singsong: “I like it here with my childhood friend… who can it be now?”

“Let’s just call it a childood thing, then,” I said, playing along. “Naive and pure.”

We laughed like the two idiots we were, doubled over, clutching our sides until the tears were from joy instead of pain. Eventually, we stumbled upstairs, still chuckling, and crashed—her in her bed, me in the guest room—happy in that fragile, fleeting way. Neither of us had a clue what was waiting for us the next day.

Vicky

I wasn't feeling bad, but I wasn't feeling well either.

Thinking about watching Toby and Melissa fall deeper into their mate bond, loving each other, building something happy and unshakable, twisted my insides more than I wanted to admit. It wasn’t good for me, that much I knew.

And if I got with Fred? That’d be even weirder—doubly Melissa’s sister-in-law, tangled up in their family like some awkward spare part.

I wasn’t even sure I liked her anymore, not the way I used to like people before they became someone else’s.

She was beautiful—tall, thin, muscular in that effortless werewolf way, with dark hair and green eyes that matched Fred’s. Sweet, intelligent, a little shy. I couldn’t help wondering what it’d be like when her bond with Toby grew strong enough to feel his emotions.

Would she sense me through him?

The history, the mess, the love I couldn’t quite let go of?

Anyway, I kept saying the Moon Goddess was a sadistic lunatic, and no one ever agreed—well, except maybe me, shouting it to myself in my head. Come on, couldn’t she give me a break?

I wasn’t even a wolf.

I felt this mix of sadness and… yeah, envy. I could admit it.

I was jealous—not some saintly angel floating above it all. I’d always known this could happen, that Toby might find his mate and I’d be left on the sidelines.

Maybe it was time to book a session with Jean, my old therapist. It’d been ages since I’d talked to him, and lately, I’d been dodging him like he was a ghost from a past I didn’t want to face.

He reminded me of when Madonna was alive, always nudging me toward his office with that gruff, “Talk to Jean, kid, it’ll help.”

Back then, the nightmares about “him” had finally stopped—the vampire I could never quite see clearly, just a presence, a shadow that prickled my skin. I’d never gotten a good look, but I knew he was a vampire, the same gut-deep dread I’d felt around Madonna’s boyfriend.

After her death, I’d suffered, drowning in grief and rage, but when he vanished for good, never darkening my door again, it felt like a gift from some kinder god.

Maybe it was thinking about vampires that dragged “him” back into my dreams that night.

In the dream, he was playing a piano, notes spilling out slow and haunting, and I was hypnotized, rooted to my seat in some dimly lit restaurant. There were others at my table, faceless blurs I couldn’t name, but his voice—sweet, sad, dripping with a melancholy I knew in my bones—held me captive.

It filled me, like I’d heard it before, like it had whispered to me a thousand times, a voice I trusted even as it pulled me under. Then it all dissolved, and the emptiness inside me pulsed, swelled, threatened to swallow me whole.

I couldn’t let it win. Jean’s words echoed in my head: “Take a deep breath, count to four, hold it, count to four, release…”

I jolted awake, chest tight, and stumbled to the kitchen for water. The moon hung fat and bright outside the window, mocking me. I stuck my tongue out at her, the Goddess—and muttered, “You could’ve waited a little longer to bring his mate, huh?”

I laughed, a brittle sound. It wasn’t true—I didn’t hate her, not really. If she protected Toby, kept him safe and happy, I liked her just a little.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself, and shuffled back to bed. Maybe I could still snag a few hours of sleep, enough to face a normal workday without falling apart.