The following morning, Luna watched as Toby left the house. To her worry, if not much to her surprise, he headed straight for the granary. She followed him, slinking from one hiding spot to the next. No problemo, she thought to herself. I'll just follow him, find out what he's doing, and then go shut up my sisters. And if he is doing something… She shook her head. Luna, don't be stupid, she told herself. She began to follow Toby, darting in and out of hiding.
"Hey, what's up?" asked a dog who saw Luna dashing from a woodpile to a garbage can. "Aren't you…"
Luna nearly jumped out of her skin and quickly spun around. "Shh!" she hissed, worried that Toby would catch her following him. "I'm trying to follow my mate, if you don't mind."
"Oh," whispered the dog with a chuckle. "Planning a surprise for him, huh?"
Luna thought carefully before answering. "You might say that."
"Okay, I'll leave you alone." And the dog left, much to Luna's relief.
Now where did Toby go? she wondered, scanning the crowd of people and dogs. There was no sign of him. He must have slipped away, she thought. She considered going to the granary anyway, but decided against it. If I went there, he might catch me and wonder what I was doing there, she reasoned. Besides, this whole thing is a waste of time. Toby wouldn't do anything sneaky―not to me, at least. And she walked away, hoping that she was right.
Meanwhile, Toby was just a short distance from the granary when he heard noises coming from an alley. Peering in, he saw an older male dog cornering a grayish husky only slightly younger than Toby himself. "Come on," the female whimpered plaintively. "I just wanna…"
"No!" growled the big dog. "And if you say another word, I'll…"
"Hey!" barked Toby. "What's going on here?"
The male dog turned an angry gaze on Toby. "None of your beeswax, junior," he growled. "This is between me and her." He turned back to the female and bared his teeth. "Now then…"
Toby wasn't about to give up. "I'm not leaving until I get an answer," he said flatly.
The dog turned to him again, his face contorted by an annoyed scowl. "Listen, kid," he said, "this doesn't interest you. This is strictly between me and the little lady here."
"On the contrary," said Toby, "it interests me very much. Now, I'll ask again. What…is going…on?"
The dog growled, his patience being stretched. "Beat it, kid," he said. "If I can't get this girl to do what I want, I'll…"
Toby lunged and caught the older dog by the back of the neck, cutting him off. The dog twisted around and tried to bite Toby's flank, but the blusky outmaneuvered him and gave a violent jerk, trying to throw his opponent off-balance. The two grappled for several minutes and exchanged several heavy blows before Toby managed to get enough leverage to throw the older dog into the street. He braced himself in anticipation of a counterattack, but the dog just picked himself up, looked at him, and snorted. "Fine," he growled, walking away. "She's all yours."
Toby looked after the older dog in confusion for a moment, then turned his attention to the female. "You okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, thanks." She frowned. "That guy has some serious social issues. I just wanted to talk and he went ballistic!"
"Don't let it worry you," Toby consoled her. "You'll be fine now. I'm Toby."
"Violet," she replied, stepping forward. "Thanks for the save, Toby. You were great."
Toby nodded. "Well, if you're okay, then I guess I should be going."
She giggled. "What's the hurry? Don't you want to talk a bit?" In response to Toby's confused expression, she continued, "See, I'm new in town. My house is the green one just a block from here on Blizzard Street. I was hoping to find a friend here…" She trailed off, giving him a look which he interpreted as hoping he could help find her a friend.
"Anyone in particular?" he inquired.
"Oh, just someone tough and brave and gentlemanly." Her tone that reminded Toby of how Luna had talked several times since they became mates.
"Oh, I see." Toby gulped. There was no denying that Violet was very attractive. "Listen, Violet, I―" He didn't get a chance to finish, as she had leapt forward and pressed her lips to his.
From across the street, Phoebe and Haley watched with interested disapproval. "Well," said Phoebe, "we've got him dead to rights now."
Haley shook her head. "Luna won't be happy about this," she said.
As they walked away, Phoebe remarked, "It's kind of hard to believe. I mean, Toby always seemed so honest."
"It's the quiet ones you have to worry about," replied Haley.
Luna stared at her sisters. "Did you two hit your heads or something?" she demanded.
"We're telling you, Luna, we saw the whole thing!" insisted Phoebe. "He chased off another dog who was bothering her, then they talked, and then they kissed!"
"And it wasn't even the same dog he was visiting at the bakery," added Haley. "He's double-two-timing you."
"Yeah, he's…" Phoebe stopped and seemed to be thinking hard. Luna resisted an urge to warn her not to strain herself, and finally Phoebe blurted out, "Triple-timing you!"
Luna scowled. "You're crazy, you know that?" she asked as her fur started to rise. At the moment she looked pretty close to crazy herself, but her sisters wisely decided not to say so. "Both of you are just plain crazy. You can't even handle simple math and you're trying to tell me that Toby's cheating on me? Even for gossips like you, that's beyond stupid."
Phoebe blinked, surprised at Luna's harsh tone and vicious posture. "But we saw…"
"You saw what you wanted to see!" snapped Luna. "Now I want you out."
Haley tried to calm Luna down. "Now, Luna, I know you feel hurt, but…"
"The only ones hurting me right now are you two with your giant mouths and empty heads!" Luna shouted. "Now both of you just get lost before I do something we'll all regret!"
Phoebe looked to Haley for direction. "Come on, Phoebe," advised Haley. "We'd better give her some time to calm down."
Luna snatched up her dog dish in her teeth and flung it, managing to deliver a hard blow to Haley as she left. "Better give me plenty of time!" she shouted. She watched as the pet flap swung closed and the dog dish landed on the floor, breaking in two. With a snort, Luna stomped over to the rug by the fire and threw herself down. Why won't they just leave me alone? she wondered. What do they know?
But where her sisters were wearing away at her before, now even her own thoughts gave her no peace. Maybe they weren't just seeing things, said a nagging voice in her mind. Maybe Toby really is… She shook her head. No, he wouldn't. Not Toby, and definitely not this soon. Heck, we've only been mates for two weeks. But as she went on arguing with herself, her trust started to slip. I'll follow him again tomorrow, she decided. This time I'll find out for sure.