Arlan was born in the Grand Teton region of Wyoming, to a small nuclear pack consisting of himself, his mother, his father, and two siblings. Around the time he was born, a series of severe snowstorms resulted in the deaths of both his siblings from exposure and starvation. To make matters worse, a large foreign pack, seeking better hunting grounds, drove what remained of the family from their den site and forced them to seek shelter further south. Unfortunately, they went to far, and by the summer they had reached an area of Wyoming completely open to wolf hunting and young Arlan lost his father to a hunter near the end of summer. Realizing the mistake, his mother tried to get her son to safety in the north, but they were not able to reach the Tetons before the advent of September hunting season claimed her as well. Barely old enough to hunt on his own, Arlan could do nothing but follow his mother's last request: keep heading north.