As quickly as the attack started, it was over. Seraph released Crooked Ear and returned to the others. They crowded around him, backing him up, growling at the interloper, their lips withdrawn, their gleaming fangs exposed.
Crooked Ear dragged himself to his feet and slunk away. He slept alone in a shallow scrape under the cover of thick balsam branches. He curled up as tightly as he could, his chin resting on all four paws so his breath warmed them, his bushy tail encircling him. When snow fell it cloaked him, adding insulation and rendering him invisible. Even the tip of his nose was perfectly camouflaged among the dark balsam cones. A passerby would never have suspected he was there.
Crooked Ear’s urge to be with the pack was, however, strong. He wanted to curl up and sleep next to other wolves, to feel their breath, to benefit from the warmth of the huddle. But more than that, he needed to be with the pack in order to find food to survive the winter. He quickly learned how close he could be without enraging Seraph. And for a while that was where he stayed, on the fringe, barely in sight of the other wolves. But as the nights became colder and food scarcer, he moved closer, submitting to Seraph many times a day. Gradually the alpha’s anger was replaced by cool disregard and tolerance. This change permitted the others to accept Crooked Ear into the pack, as long as he stayed at the bottom of the hierarchy.
It was a hard, hungry winter, and all the wolves lost weight, but Crooked Ear, low in social standing, was particularly thin. His coat was lacklustre, and although the long guard hairs still disguised his ribs, little flesh covered his skeleton.
Finally the breeze blew soft, and once again the wolves stretched out on the great slabs of granite that angled slightly towards the sky. Beneath them, the glare ice of Clear Lake was criss-crossed with grey-brown fissures and gleaming channels of black water, but high on the ridge the rocks had been swept clean of snow by winter winds and warmed by the spring sunshine. It was here that they lay, just as their ancestors had for centuries.
Seraph was in a relaxed mood and Crooked Ear, taking advantage of his uncle’s congeniality, flopped on his side with the other wolves, his thick winter coat absorbing the sun’s rays. At one year, he was almost full grown. He was lofty, as his father had been, but still lacked the girth and muscle of a mature wolf.
Seraph raised his head and blinked his sleepy eyes then leapt to his feet, alert and attentive, stretching his head toward the scent carried on the breeze. With a whine and a wag of his bushy tail, he sprang off the rocks and trotted down the narrow trail that led to the trees. The other wolves stretched, yawned, and followed him to where the balsam firs grew dense and dark. There, on the south-facing slope, where the sun peeked through the trees, a pile of freshly excavated sandy soil marked the entrance to the old den where Seraph’s mate had recently birthed their first litter.
The wolves cocked their heads in response to the mewling that came from deep underground. Seraph bowed down and rested his head on enormous paws, a whine of anticipation coming from his throat. In response, the she-wolf crawled along the root-lined tunnel into the daylight.
Seraph bounded toward her but stopped abruptly when he saw the angle of her ears and the stony stare in her yellow eyes. Tentatively he sniffed the air, savouring the unfamiliar smells of birth and milk that mingled with the alluring odour of she-wolf. He stretched toward her, but her withdrawn lips told him that she was in no mood to be friendly. He took a step back and observed with all of his senses. Her hairless belly was slung low with two rows of swollen teats, ribs stared out of her coarse coat, and hip bones protruded through the tight skin of her haunches. Seraph spun and loped down the well-worn trail, where thin soil barely covered the ancient rocks of the Canadian Shield. The other wolves scrambled after him, their claws gaining traction on the stubborn patches of packed, dirty snow. Survival of the offspring was now the pack’s shared priority.
Crooked Ear was the first to return, a mouse held gently in his lips.
The den held strong memories of his own mother, memories he could not resist. He entered, dragging himself down the tunnel on his belly. Despite his offering, the she-wolf bared her fangs, snarling and growling viciously. He dropped the rodent and quickly retreated, rump first, into Seraph. Fortunately the alpha’s fangs were clamped onto a vole and all he could do was lash out with his front claws. Crooked Ear veered away and retreated to the perimeter of the pack once more.
The she-wolf moved to the trees and urinated, then, flattening herself to the ground, she crawled back inside the den. The mewling intensified for a few moments as each of the squirrel-sized pups scrambled on wobbly legs to find a source of nourishment and comfort. Soon their crying was replaced by sucking, swallowing, and snuffled breathing.
Crooked Ear did his part in feeding the she-wolf, who, in turn, fed the growing pups. Of the five, four remained. The runt had been sickly from birth. During the first few hours she had vigorously licked the floppy creature and had repeatedly pushed it toward her belly, but it lacked the strength to nurse. She nosed it to one side of the den, away from the others. As soon as she realized that there was no breath coming from its nose, she licked it one last time, and then, in the manner of wolves, she ate it.
Even in their sleep, the wolves heard the far-off call of the ravens and knew that the big birds had spotted prey. Heads popped out from under bushy tails and ears pricked up, alert. Crooked Ear stood and shook the balsam needles from his coat, then, quivering with anticipation, he raised his voice in chorus with the pack. In the excitement, the wolves chased their own tails and nipped at each other until a stare from Seraph’s yellow eyes silenced them. They followed him as he loped toward the voices of the ravens, leaving the new mother standing at the entrance to the den. She sighed and returned to her pups.
Crooked Ear watched the other wolves closely. They all took their orders from Seraph, a glare from his eyes rooting them to the spot or telling them to advance. The limited hunting that Crooked Ear had done with his parents had taught him little. Now he was learning that every member of the pack had a part to play in surrounding the prey, worrying it, and tiring it so that the kill could be made without injury to the wolf itself. He was learning patience, planning, and stealth. He was learning the way of the wolf.
They approached the elk from downwind, long strands of saliva drooling onto their paws. With bodies low to the ground, and moving so as not to snap a twig, they skirted the herd, fanning out, eyes and noses searching every detail. The cows were heavy with young. In a few weeks the newborns would be easy targets, but the experienced wolves knew that right now the females would not go down easily. They would fight.
The elk sniffed the air, their senses attuned to any noise or smell that might indicate the presence of a predator. They gingerly inched away from the oval depressions in the snow where they had slept, away from the yellow, urine-stained craters, away from the safety of the cedar stand, out to where straw-coloured seed heads stood tall above a tangled thatch of winter-damaged grass. Some pawed the ground to remove snow from the matted pasture. Others wrapped their tongues around tall stems and chewed, their jaws moving from side to side in a faltering motion.
The wolves spotted an old bull, moving stiffly from one patch of snow-covered grass to another. Its ribs and haunches protruded through rough hair, its mane was matted, and its antlers, which would be formidable weapons later in the season, were harmless velvet-covered buds.
The wolves closed in. A cow, her nostrils twitching, caught the first scent of danger. She raised her tail, warning the others with the flash of white. Eyes wide with panic, the elk moved closer together. The wolves stood tall. Realizing they were surrounded on three sides by their most feared predator, the herd bolted for the only opening in sight. The wolves exploded toward the old bull, cutting it off from the panicked herd and driving it toward Seraph, who waited in the undergrowth. When the bull elk was almost upon him, Seraph leaped, sinking his fangs into its throat.
Crooked Ear joined the others, jumping onto its back and clinging with his teeth as the bull spun and bucked. Finally, another wolf grabbed the