Dire Wolf as a Ranger pet?

[Arklight]

Is this possible? I "befriended" one and made it an ally after sitting around for a week waiting for our "reinforcements" to arrive from the Grand Lodge while on a mission (and yes PFS rules are applying). Now I know I can have a wolf; and a dire wolf is just a larger more aggressive wolf, but still just a wolf by the description. An animal, not a magical creature. So in theory could I keep him as my "pet" and use him as a mount?

[Benchak the Nightstalker]

Ranger animal companions use different rules than straight up animals, so if you're asking if you can just use that wolf's stat block as your AC, the answer is unfortunately no.

However, the wolf Animal Companion does actually work as a Dire Wolf after effective level 4 (it even gets large), so if you don't mind doing a little mechanical rebuild on your buddy, you can totally have it as your animal companion.

Just remember, rangers are effective level -3 for animal companions, so you'll have to be 7th before the wolf gets large (though there are feats to help with that).