Abridged story about male deer briefly raised with a predator's offspring (4,3)
I believe the answer is:
lion cub
'offspring' is the definition.
(I know that lion cub is a type of cub)
'abridged story about male deer briefly raised with a predator's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'about' could be 'on' (as in a book 'on' a certain topic) and 'on' is found in the answer.
'male' could be 'cub' (cub is a kind of male) and 'cub' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'li' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lion cub that I've seen before include "Elsa's offspring possibly (Born Free)" , "Baby feline" , "beastly prince?" , "Young mauler" , "Creature" .)