The Wolf-Born

Shere Khan is dead, but his blood lives on. Born the night the great tiger fell, Kali is a wolf cub raised on legend: the tale of Mowgli, the man-cub who broke the Law of the Jungle and won. She's never known any world but Seeonee, until a stranger arrives at the Council Rock with news that changes everything: Shere Khan's mate survived, and her cubs are grown, hungry, and coming for revenge.

What follows is a sweeping adventure across every corner of Kipling's jungle: the crumbling ruins of the Cold Lairs and the lawless Bandar-log who rule them, the icy shores where the White Seal's kin still swim, the elephant roads where Toomai's descendants walk, and finally the human village where the line between man and beast blurs again. Themes of pack loyalty, wilderness survival, coming-of-age courage, ancient law versus new threats, and the price of legacy run through it all.

It's animal fable meets epic quest: a story about what's owed to the dead, and what it costs the living to pay it.

Genre/category: animal fable, jungle adventure, coming-of-age fantasy, wilderness epic, YA adventure fiction, mythic fiction, classic literature reimagined

Hook/theme: legacy, revenge, pack loyalty, ancient law, blood feud, survival, courage, found family, wilderness survival, man versus beast, coming-of-age, epic quest, inheritance of violence, honor, redemption

World/setting: jungle, wolf pack, Seeonee, Cold Lairs, Bandar-log, Council Rock, monkey kingdom, elephant roads, northern seas, human village, ancient ruins, ruined temple, ice floes, tiger's revenge

Character/creature: wolf cub, she-wolf, tiger cubs, Shere Khan's bloodline, Mowgli's legacy, jungle law, pack hierarchy, apex predator, jungle council

Comp/audience: Rudyard Kipling, Jungle Book retelling, spin-off novel, Kipling universe expanded, classic tale continued, multi-species ensemble cast