I saw a documentary today about the Duchels (sp?) and how the introduce wolves back onto Sawtooth Mountain, Idaho. They created a pack with a male and female and her new cubs. The female would run off. One of the male cubs become alpha and even the adult male accepted the younger's alpha status.
Eventually, a pack structure did develop. An omega female became alpha female at the alpha male's choosing. A beta male was baby sitter and teacher, sometimes spending more time with cubs than the alpha female.
One of the other omega females would try to sneak in to get a bite off of the carcass at feeding time. The alpha male would attack and pin. And would do this as many times as necessary. Other times, during play assume a position of dominance to reiterate the roles. Others would submit readily.
Some of the middle wolves would jostle for rank. But the alpha male decided who got to eat in what order. And omegas always eat last. But, when re-homing the wolves to a Nez Perce Apache reservation, the alpha would not lead into the new area until the entire pack was together, including the omega male, his brother.
With the humans, who only approached and lived with the wolves on the wolves' terms, they were totally friendly and would greet them with licks. Mrs. Duchel was allowed by the alpha female to enter the den and view the cubs at 3 weeks.
Though wolf confrontations rarely ended in death or severe injury, there was no doubt who was boss and it involved physical power and control.
So, the wolves did not view the humans as part of the pack but they did not view them as enemies but more as friendly apes they could visit with sometimes.
A couple of implications, to me. There is a pack dynamic. It can be fluid at times and certainly changes with the introduction of a new member. The humans did not try to be alpha. The wolves interact in a subtly different way with humans than they do with each other. For example, the wolves did not try to be alpha to the humans. Also, perhaps, human canid interaction is different than just acting like an alpha dog. For the wolves, human language is just so much buzzing and groaning. Body language means everything. And wolves howl to communicate. Barking is only seen in a confrontation. But it was also easy to see how wolves could have led themselves to domestication by being friendly with friendly humans. Even with the alpha male, there is a bond between canid and human. Good, bad, magical, whatever, it is there.