Wolfsong characters

Also known as Oxnard Matheson

Appears from the start

A boy from the small logging town of Green Creek, Oregon, who is twelve when his father walks out on him and his mother, leaving him with the conviction that he is slow and that people will give him a hard time for the rest of his life. Large for his age, quiet and watchful, he leaves school early to work at the local garage and to keep his mother afloat. He is far kinder and far more perceptive than almost anyone around him assumes, and he is used to being underestimated.

Appears from the start

Ox's mother, left to raise him alone in a house at the end of a dirt road after his father leaves. She works long shifts for little money, holds the household together, and is unwavering in her belief that her son is worth more than the town gives him credit for.

First appears in chapter 2

The owner of the garage in Green Creek, who gives Ox a job when he is sixteen. Gruff, sharp-tongued and tattooed from wrist to shoulder in ink that never seems to hold still, he looks out for Ox in his own abrasive way. He carries an old and unexplained hostility toward the family that moves into the house at the end of Ox's road, and refuses to say where it comes from.

First appears in chapter 2

One of the mechanics at Gordo's garage and part of the crew that folds Ox into their working days, their arguments and their jokes.

First appears in chapter 2

A mechanic at Gordo's garage, talkative and warm, who takes to Ox immediately and never lets him sit alone at lunch.

First appears in chapter 2

A mechanic at Gordo's garage and one of Ox's steadiest friends, level-headed where Rico and Tanner are loud.

First appears in chapter 3

The youngest son of the family that moves into the house at the end of Ox's road. He is about ten when he comes out of the trees to meet Ox, tells him he smells extraordinary, and attaches himself to him completely. His family says he has not spoken in years, but he talks to Ox from the first moment. Bright, relentless and openly adoring, he gives Ox a small carved stone wolf as a gift and treats it as a promise.

First appears in chapter 4

The head of the Bennett family, a calm and deliberate man who carries authority without ever raising his voice. He takes an immediate interest in Ox and, almost alone among the adults in Ox's life, treats him as someone of real worth rather than as his father's son.

First appears in chapter 4

Thomas's wife and the mother of Carter, Kelly and Joe. She paints, keeps a warm and crowded house, and draws Ox and his mother into the family's orbit without ever making it feel like charity.

First appears in chapter 4

The eldest Bennett son, loud, restless and quick with a joke, who adopts Ox as a brother almost as fast as his youngest brother does.

First appears in chapter 4

The middle Bennett son, quieter and more even-tempered than Carter, and rarely more than a step away from him.

First appears in chapter 5

Thomas's younger brother, who lives with the family at the end of the road. He is watchful and gentle, and there is plainly a long, unhappy history between him and Gordo that neither man is willing to explain.

First appears in chapter 14

An alpha without a pack, fixated on the Bennett bloodline and the power it carries. He is the reason for the violence in Joe's childhood, and he has never been caught.

First appears in chapter 14

Chris's sister, blunt and practical, who becomes a friend of Ox's and for a time something more. She refuses to be handled or protected, and stays close to the group at the garage.

First appears in chapter 20

An envoy from the wider wolf leadership who arrives to help the Bennetts manage their affairs. He presents himself as a long-standing friend of the family and as the authority's reasonable, helpful face in Green Creek.

First appears in chapter 24

A young wolf sent to Green Creek by the wolf leadership: cheerful, bespectacled and eager to be useful. Having never really had a pack of his own, he attaches himself to the people holding the town together.