Yes any wolf, bear or mountain lion that gets within 10 ft of me is going to be taking on lead. Its highly unusual for a wild animal to come anywhere near a human.
My fiancee’ is from out West and he used to be a govt bounty hunter. He has hunted mountain lion, coyotes, wolves, pigs, prairie dogs you name it. He says with mountain lions you stalk them up the ridge all day and then they stalk you down the ridge all afternoon. But at least you can spot them.
He says hunting a wolf is like following a grey ghost. One afternoon he was coming off a ridge and he felt like something was following him so he was backing down toward his vehicle and he could hear the crunch crunch crunch out in the trees and there were about 5-6 wolves following him. He said you can never catch more than a glimpse of them and the darker it got the closer they came. He finally got into his truck and left ASAP.
The kids and I are reading White Fang. What you are saying reminds me of the first couple of chapters.