First point, Several characters in Belgariad and mallorean have learned to speak wolf. without transofrming themselves into the shape of a wolf. Polgara and Garion had been written to understand bird language before they ever changed into an avian form. as far as wolf goes, during the polgara epilogue, the Eddings did put a lot of effort into encouraging the readers to think that wolf is different/special/something not QUITE as it seems, if that is the case I'd vote that despite the words spoken, he IS POledra and Belgarath's Son. after all Zith's Pregnancy was held in stasis for a while, why not have a god stop Poledra from delivering her third "pup" until a specific time. yeah a bit of a stretch, I know, at the end they gave a description of him basically patiently watching, waiting that sort of thing. fits kinda nicely to my mind of wolf being related to poledra, so toss a curve ball that way...