Mark Dauphin loves his nephews, Sam and Logan, and he'll do anything his brother-in-law Cole asks, but when Cole wants Mark to play nice with Stefano Magnussi, Mark isn't sure he can comply. Stefano is hotter than fire, but Mark can't see past the fact that Stefano is one of those guys, the type of men who date guys half their age, the type of guys who made Mark give up on dating.<br><br>Of course, a little wine and several cocktails later, Mark finds himself dropping more than his defenses with Stefano. But when Logan and the rest of Mark's family surprise them in the morning, Mark and Stefano are suddenly at odds.<br><br>When Logan's ego is wounded, not only does Mark find himself desperate to fix his relationship with his nephew, but he also questions whether his night with this beautiful man meant anything to either of them. Mark isn't given much time to reflect though, as the war that's been brewing between the shivers comes to a violent head, and he soon learns that sometimes you just have to trust in those around you.

Mark's Midlife

He didn’t have any language. As Emily and Cole had never talked to their kids about the shifter thing, he had not ever had the opportunity to learn Dolphinese. Not to mention the fact that you can’t learn it unless you’re in dolphin, or I guess karonden, form. Nonetheless, Sam spoke, and he was heard. Later, he would tell me that he just spoke from his heart, that he somehow or other spoke his human language and it came out. Linguistically, that never made sense to me, but in my heart, I believed him. No matter the way, he got through to people that day.


He dove into the middle of all the chaos, dove under water, and then he began to speak.


“Hello,” he said in a deep voice that let you know that he wasn’t sure of himself, and somehow that made people want to listen.


Chapter 47