Once There Were Wolves

Chapter 1 opens in Inti’s father’s shed in the forest where he is teaching his young daughters how to skin a rabbit. This is the first time she learns that she has mirror-touch synesthesia. When her father slits the rabbit open, she feels as if it were happening to her. The incident is significant because when she runs out of the shed, she sees her first wolf in the distance.

In the present, Inti is in the Scottish Highlands looking over the wolves she and her team are about to release into the forest. They move the fourteen tranquilized wolves from their creates into pens, which they will transport to three different areas in the forest. Each pen contains about five wolves that are meant to form separate packs. Like Inti, the wolves are from British Columbia, and she wonders if they will thrive in a foreign environment.

Inti bathes and clothes Aggie and talks to her about the wolves’ progress. Inti is particularly interested in the female Number Six and the male Number Nine, who are supposed to mate and form a pack. Inti often talks to Aggie, but Aggie is unresponsive most of the time.