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Personally, I saw it as an extension of old Space Wolves fluff.
First, Magnus says that there are no wolves on Fenris and hints at changes made to their DNA, possibly by the original colonists. Also, I vaguely remember a hint that the Canis Helix may be a feature of Fenrisians, rather than the geneseed of the marines.
Secondly, we have the thirteenth legion and the mention in the old Eye of Terror campaign that suggests that Space Wolves are resistant to the effects of Chaos because they start to mutate into Wulfen, to some extent protecting them.
I would suspect that the original settlers had difficulties surviving on the deathworld of Fenris, so they genetically improved themselves, creating the Canis Helix. At the time, they didn't realise that the genetic mutation would cause the effects commonly described for Space Wolves, ie. turning into werewolves.
I think that a lot of the problems the Space Wolves have with their genetics is due to the interaction between the Canis Helix and the geneseed, which can cause a rapid mutation (longer fangs, more body hair, wildness, usw.). If the mutation is linked to the warp, it would be expected that most natives of Fenris do not live long enough or encounter enough warp energy to mutate, but the long-lived marines do.
Furthermore, it may be that an event in Fenris' history lead to some kind of warp interaction, maybe daemon worship, or planetary problems similar to those of the Dark Angels. This could be a secret that the Space Wolves don't like to talk about, even though all traces of the worship may be long gone.
Therefore, the wolves themselves were created by a catastophic event at some point in Fenris' history, although they are self-sufficient as a population now. Maybe around the warp, the wolves become bigger and nastier, the better to resist the problems.
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