Free 3 Among the Wolves by Helen Thayer Page B

figure, responsible for making rivers flow, bringing daylight to the world, hanging the moon in
the sky, and acquiring fire. He also created people, and then is said to have tricked them out of their food.
    Mystical powers have been attributed to Raven as far back as ancient Greece. Odin, the Raven God and ruler of the Norse gods, kept a wolf on each side of his throne and a raven on each shoulder. Wolves and ravens even accompanied Odin into battle.
    The Alaskan legend of the elderberry shrub tells of the time Raven traveled along a northern river and met Stone and Elderberry, who argued over who should give birth to the Tsimshian people, the natives of Southeast Alaska. Stone argued that if she gave birth first, then the people would live an extraordinarily long time, whereas if Elderberry was first to give birth, then the people’s life span would be brief. Wise Raven listened and saw that Stone was almost ready to deliver, so he reached out and touched Elderberry, instructing her to go first. She did, and that is the reason people don’t live as long as stones.

    The last long days of May signaled the onset of the main mosquito season. They arrived in waves of bloodsucking, buzz-bombing hordes from hell. Northern mosquitoes are larger and more aggressive than their southern relatives. Their bites raise large welts whose itching can drive a victim to the brink of insanity. A buzzing that quickly becomes a loud whine signals their arrival.
    For the entire summer, the sky-filling swarms dive-bombed us to grab a blood meal at every chance. Even when we tired of the battle and escaped into our tent they waited outside, daring us to venture into their midst, and a few dozen always beat us inside. Only the female mosquitoes draw blood; they need the nourishment to lay eggs. Thus our blood was providing the means for these pests to lay more eggs, which of course meant more mosquitoes.

    In response, we grabbed our industrial-strength deet repellent and smothered our exposed skin. Considering that this substance melts plastic, one has to be desperate to use it. And desperate we were. When I smeared a little deet on Charlie, though, he pulled back in indignation, even though his nose already bore numerous bites. Fortunately I was able to persuade him to accept a milder liquid; although useless to us, it kept him reasonably mosquito-free.
    By the end of May, an atmosphere of trust and acceptance prevailed between the wolf pack and our camp. The wolves often sunned themselves close to Charlie’s boundary or just sat in the shade watching us. Even timid Omega relaxed and frequently stood in full view instead of furtively peering at us from behind a rock. Mother, although still somewhat aloof, was less secretive and her gaze less piercing. When we washed our clothes in the stream, she was fascinated. She would stand tilting her head this way and that, as if trying to understand this strange activity. We hoped that as her trust in us increased, she would bring her pups out of the den.
    Alpha, although always authoritative, proved to be a gentle leader and quickly demonstrated acceptance of Charlie after our first week at Wolf Camp One. Later his relaxed posture would exhibit acceptance of Bill and me as well. His natural gentleness, self-confidence, and assured position as his family’s undisputed leader likely made it easier for him to readily accept Charlie as the alpha of his human pack. With Alpha’s own role unquestioned, he felt no need to defend himself against Charlie, or even against Bill and me, and thus quickly disregarded us as a threat. In contrast, Omega, who clearly lacked self-esteem, usually kept to the edges of the pack and took as long as two months to accept Charlie and, later, Bill and me.
    Easygoing Denali and Beta took little notice of us after the first two weeks. Beta, as the second in command, was never required to prove his leadership and calmly took life as it came.
As for Denali, whenever