Once There Were Wolves Quiz: 20 Questions on Plot, Characters, and Themes
Test your knowledge of Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves with this 20-question quiz. It covers the full arc of the novel—from the illegal wolf release in the Scottish Cairngorms to the epilogue's quiet renewal—and touches on plot, character motivation, themes, and big-picture synthesis. Each question is grounded in the book's events, and the answer key at the bottom explains why each answer is correct. If you need a refresher, check the book overview, the questions and answers, or the ending explained before you begin.
Plot and Sequence (Questions 1–8)
1. How many gray wolves does Inti and her team release into the Scottish forest?
A) 10
B) 12
C) 14
D) 16
2. What happens to the male wolf Number Nine?
Short answer: ________________________________________
3. Who actually kills Stuart Burns?
A) Inti
B) Duncan
C) Aggie
D) A wolf
4. After discovering Stuart's body, what does Inti do with it?
Short answer: ________________________________________
5. What happens to Duncan near the end of the novel?
A) He is killed by a wolf
B) He is attacked by Aggie and survives with a throat injury
C) He is arrested for Stuart's murder
D) He leaves Scotland permanently
6. Where does Inti give birth to her daughter?
Short answer: ________________________________________
7. In the epilogue, what does Inti do with the wolves' radio collars?
A) She replaces them with new ones
B) She removes them so the wolves can be truly free
C) She uses them to track the pack for research
D) She leaves them on but stops monitoring
8. What happens to Ash (Number Six) in the epilogue?
Short answer: ________________________________________
Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)
9. Why does Inti feel the physical sensations of other creatures?
A) She has a psychic gift
B) She has mirror-touch synesthesia
C) She is highly trained in animal behavior
D) She takes medication that heightens empathy
10. Why does Inti deliberately provoke Stuart outside the pharmacy?
Short answer: ________________________________________
11. What motivates Aggie to kill Stuart Burns?
A) She wants to protect Inti from Stuart's threats and abuse
B) She is jealous of Inti's relationship with Duncan
C) She is paid by Red McRae
D) She believes Stuart killed a wolf
12. Why does Duncan lie about Stuart's whereabouts on the night of his disappearance?
Short answer: ________________________________________
13. Why does Inti decide to give up her baby?
A) She is too ill to care for a child
B) She feels too angry and fears repeating patterns of violence
C) She wants to return to Alaska alone
D) She believes the baby is not Duncan's
Theme and Symbol (Questions 14–17)
14. What does the wolf primarily symbolize in the novel?
Short answer: ________________________________________
15. What does the forest represent for Inti?
A) A place of danger and fear
B) Interconnectedness, memory, and home
C) A source of economic profit
D) A symbol of human dominance
16. What does the radio collar symbolize?
Short answer: ________________________________________
17. What does the recurring image of the northern lights represent?
A) Impending disaster
B) Hope, wonder, and connection
C) The coldness of the Scottish climate
D) The separation between humans and animals
Synthesis (Questions 18–20)
18. How does Inti's mirror-touch synesthesia shape her relationships with both wolves and people?
Short answer: ________________________________________
19. Compare how Inti and Aggie respond to trauma and violence.
Short answer: ________________________________________
20. What does the epilogue suggest about the possibility of coexistence between humans and wolves?
Short answer: ________________________________________
Answer Key
1. C) 14 — The team transports fourteen gray wolves in crates to the Scottish Cairngorms, releasing them into three acclimation pens (Chapter 1).
2. Number Nine is shot dead by Red McRae. — Inti learns from Duncan that Nine was shot on McRae's farm, even though the wolf was on the forest side of the stream (Chapter 7).
3. C) Aggie — In Chapter 30, Aggie confesses that she followed Stuart into the forest and stabbed him, after he came to their house that night.
4. She buries his body. — Inti buries Stuart's body in the hard ground to prevent the community from blaming the wolves and launching a hunt (Chapter 11).
5. B) He is attacked by Aggie and survives with a throat injury. — Aggie attacks Duncan and his dog, cutting Duncan's throat; he survives surgery but may not speak again (Chapters 27 and 30).
6. Alone in the snow. — After shooting Number Ten, Inti goes into labor, gives birth alone, and is later found by Aggie and Red McRae (Chapter 28).
7. B) She removes them so the wolves can be truly free. — In the epilogue, Inti says she went out with tranquilizer darts and removed every radio collar so the wolves could live freely.
8. Ash dies peacefully in her sleep at age nine. — The epilogue states that Ash lay down to sleep and didn't wake, surrounded by her family, after leading the Abernethy Pack.
9. B) She has mirror-touch synesthesia. — Inti explains that her brain re-creates the sensory experiences of others, making her feel what she sees (Chapter 1).
10. To redirect Stuart's anger from Lainey to herself. — Inti provokes Stuart hoping he will strike her instead of his wife, so she can file charges against him (Chapter 10).
11. A) She wants to protect Inti from Stuart's threats and abuse. — Aggie kills Stuart after he comes to their house, and she later tells Inti she did it to keep her safe (Chapter 30).
12. To protect Inti. — Duncan says he lied because he knew Inti was also out that night and wanted to shield her from suspicion (Chapter 25).
13. B) She feels too angry and fears repeating patterns of violence. — Inti tells Duncan she is too angry to keep the child, and she has been haunted by the violence she witnessed and experienced (Chapter 25).
14. The wolf symbolizes rewilding, wildness, empathy, and the possibility of connection between humans and nature. — Throughout the novel, wolves represent the restoration of the land and the characters' own wild, untamed instincts.
15. B) Interconnectedness, memory, and home. — Inti's father taught her that trees communicate through tangled roots, and the forest is a place of belonging and memory (Chapter 3).
16. The radio collar symbolizes human control and the tension between freedom and captivity. — Removing the collars in the epilogue signifies letting go of that control and allowing the wolves to live wild.
17. B) Hope, wonder, and connection. — The northern lights appear at moments of emotional release, such as when Aggie comforts Inti after the wolf killing, suggesting beauty and resilience.
18. Inti's synesthesia makes her feel the pain and pleasure of others, which deepens her empathy for wolves but also exhausts her and makes her vulnerable. — It drives her to protect the wolves and to understand their suffering, but it also isolates her from people because she cannot easily distance herself from their pain.
19. Inti tends to internalize guilt and try to manage situations alone, while Aggie responds with protective violence and ultimately takes extreme action to shield her sister. — Inti buries Stuart's body and lies to protect the wolves; Aggie kills Stuart and attacks Duncan to eliminate threats, showing a more direct, aggressive response to trauma.
20. The epilogue suggests that coexistence is possible when humans let go of control and allow nature to take its course. — After the collars are removed, the wolves thrive, locals grow accustomed to them, and new growth appears, indicating that trust and patience can lead to harmony.