Silvertip Mountain Digging that den.

Mason watched Zaria with some distress evident on his face when she let out a tirade of information. Sometimes she seemed so normal, he forgot her past. Mason had been infatuated with Zaria, but Fitz seemed to truly love her. Sometimes Mason wondered why. She was correct - she wasn’t sweet and loving. He hoped it would change once she had the puppies, but he could not gauge that at all. Even Fitz wasn’t the most affectionate – he tended more towards the stoic leader father.
 
All Mason could ensure was that these brothers and sisters would have kisses and cuddles and love from him. They would not grow up into unloving psycopaths through family dysfunction, Mason wouldn’t let them. He had managed without a mother’s love, even if he had received some milk for a few months.
 
“Well you don’t know it’s gonna suck. You’ve never had puppies before, and maybe they’ll surprise you. Maybe some of them will be just like you,” Mason realised as he said it that they might have four or five stubborn Zaria-types walking around the mountain soon. Mason eyed her critically, listening to her huffs and puffs but not holding much stock in them. She was clearly knackered by pregnancy which wouldn’t help. “Anyway, you’re stuck with them now, and your body will give out the milk itself.”
 
He thought of small puppies wriggling against a mother’s warm belly and he hoped they would receive some sort of love. Mason’s tone softened “I’ll be there to help Zari.” Using her nickname for the first time in a long time, but it no longer held connotations of love for her, but for the beings inside her.