“They call me Swift because I was the first to stand up and walk. Wherever my legs take me, I always circle back to the empty hollow spot in the center of the den that smells like home, like the thing I can never smell enough. And then she come sin out of the wind, the best of all smells: mother.”

As a pup, Wander was called Swift by his family; he later abandons his name in despair when he is permanently separated from his pack, believing himself to be unworthy of retaining it. Although he is excited to venture outside the den and explore his pack’s home territory, Wander’s earliest memories are of the comfort and contentment of being in a familiar place among those he loves. When he is alone, the longing for that feeling inspires him to seek out relationships with other wolves.

“I sit on my wag, but it will not hold still. I breathe in the smell of him, deeper and longer until his scent holds a spot in my memory right next to Mother. I will do anything for him! […] ‘Father! Mine!’ I cannot stop smelling the red on him. It makes me hungry like the smell of mother’s milk, but this is a new smell. A richer smell. I can’t resist it. I nose his chin. I lick his face. He leans toward me and opens his mouth wide.”

When Wander meets his father for the first time, he immediately recognizes his father’s position of power in the pack and appreciates the instantaneous bond despite his instinctual fear in the presence of such a large and intimidating wolf. From his father’s mouth, Wander receives his first taste of meat and learns that elk, as the wolves’ primary and preferred prey source, are essential to sustaining the health and growth of a pack.

“I watch it all: the quick and silent approach, the line of attack, the direction of the wind, the way my father circles around the front, turning the deer back into the jaws of Mother and Song. In my head I’m there with them, chasing, circling, springing. I will feed my pack. I will. Better than all of them. I watch Father hunt every day. Even after I grow from a pup to a yearling. I learn. I remember. I run.”

Wander is instinctively motivated to ascend to the role of hunter from the moment he begins to venture forth from his den as a young pup. He is more serious and introspective than his siblings; he seeks out every opportunity to learn about pack dynamics from his elders, becoming a fixture at his father’s side so that he might learn how to emulate the qualities of a leader.