To be a proper wolf it's important to mark out the territory.
The Evolutionary history of the wolf is not totaly clear, but many biologists believe that the wolf developed from primitive carnivores known as miacids. Miacids ranged from gopher-sized to dog-sized animals, and appeared in the Lower Tertiary about fifty two million years ago. Miacids in turn had evolved from Cretaceous insectivores. The direct descendants of miacids today are animals called viverrids, which include the genet of Africa.
Relatively late in the evolutionary history of miacids came the appearance of the first canid (Cynodictis), one of these was called the dawn-wolf, this creature had a long body and looked like a enlongated fox, it could live and climb in trees, it was also thought to possibly related to feline species.
The first gray wolf,(Canis Lupis), probably appeared in Eurasia sometime in the early Pleistocene period about a million years ago. Around 750,000 years ago, it is thought to have migrated to North America. Some think it originated in America and moved the other way. (This was a theory among Amerindians once. Now the theory is that wolves originated in multiple places and the theory about hominins echoes this idea.)
The Dire Wolf,(Canis Dirus), larger and heavier than the gray wolf, evolved earlier and the two co existed in North America for about 400,000 years. As prey became extinct around 16,000 years ago due to climatic change, the dire wolf gradually became extinct itself. Around 7,000 years ago the gray wolf became the prime canine predator in North America
Many large animals went extinct about 10,000 years ago, but not the gray wolf nor the coyote. No one knows why. Wolves can still viably reproduce with dogs and coyotes, but it doesn't happen often or create a new species. The barrier is not DNA but rather cultural/ecological niche difference. They don't always interact. Neither have I seen anything identifying the genes that keep wolves the same but spread variabiity among dogs to incredible contrasts.
This includes a whole website that is "Ideas for depicting wolves". Art and wolves, story and wolves, are tightly interwoven because they inhabit the part of our inner life that is recent: symbolism, emotion, empathy, and awareness. They are dangerous but have a dog dimension. "No, it's not possible for humans to turn into wolves. Werewolves do not exist in reality. However, there is an actual medical condition called Lycanthropy, where people believe they have turned into, or regularly transform into, other animals (most notably wolves)." Through horizontal transmission, it's possible some humans now include some wolf genes, but they are not expressed in any obvious way. And so on.
To be a complete and working wolf is complex.
"The gestation period lasts 62–75 days, with pups usually being born in the summer period. Wolves bear relatively large pups in small litters compared to other canid species." Females give birth in dens they dig, in the right kind of soil, as much as ten feet deep. Fear of wolves and attempts at elimination often focus on the babies in the den, using fire or gas or entanglement with barbed wire. Bodies can be flayed for the fur, then hung as warnings and boasting.
If safe, babies form attachment to the mother through nursing and her licking. These are the beginnings of every mammal, which develop into the species-specific voice and relationships. Humans included. "There are some lone wolves out there that live alone. They don't scent mark or howl though. They live off of very small animals such as rodents due to the fact that they have to hunt on their own."
An individual wolf is the product of its physical experience, its mind (it can see what prey is going to do next); its emotion which is mammalian, so dependent on the same electrochemical, hormonal, organ-based loops as ours; its immediate relationships; its environment, esp food source and sources of danger; and the whole incredible and minutely interacting history and extent of its existence. This is also true of people, no matter how much young college men worship brains.
What is inside the skin pushes against and pulls inside whatever is outside the skin. A wolf taken from the SW to the NE will be a changed animal. Maturation patterns change the animal. I'm watching the adult cats next to me in the "computer window" where I made a platform for them to sit in the sun. The last kittens are nearly grown now and a new couple of infants has arrived. The oldest cat is mixing the old kitten-licking with hard biting. She is his grandmother but the mother died when this kitten was young. The two half-grown cats are toms, beginning to wrestle with each other hard enough to shriek. The two adults are female. The infants are too young to tell. Even newborns have slightly different personalities. The nearly grown kitten, one of a pair I called "the Dittoes" because I couldn't tell them apart, have separated into one which is now half-wild and often missing and one which is fond and always close by.
It was thought, in a bit of romantic projection, that wolves like geese and swans mate for life, preserving cub interactions as affection for years of intimacy and protection. But the group is larger than a couple and will include "aunts and uncles" who help care for and feed cubs. At the same time, some individuals are "lone wolves" and will not only stand apart from the cluster but also begin to travel very long distances, even across the continent. Modern electronics make it possible to follow them.
A pack may be disrupted by the death of an animal, particularly a leader. Competition and war between packs can cause disruption but sometimes the family will re-form. Males don't necessarily remain faithful, so DNA sequences vary. Much of wolf behavior is echoed by the patterns of early Plains indigenous people, because it works, falls into place under pressure from circumstances.
Young males are always a problem, but I found nothing about the formation of same-sex and age groups, as in herds of young elk or horses. A wolf is full-sized at two years and simply leaves. Two major factors are the ability to collaborate, as when working together, and communicating even over distance by howling. The other strong variable is territory, which must be big enough to feed and shelter the pack.
Now, how to shape all this into a coherent story that has some kind of point? What point? What would it mean to a reader?
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