Second update on Hook this week! Woohoo! And fourth update this week in general, I'm on a roll!

I introduce Matt's brother Orly(Orlando) and his wife Mariana in this chapter. If you want to know more about them, zip over to the short (and completely finished) story The Professor and the Siren. You can read all about their super quick chemistry and turbulent first meeting.

Enjoy the chapter. :-)

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Moonfell

It had been a week since I'd started working at the Stonefish and both Matt and Dev had given me lessons on how to control water during that time. I was now able to dry myself quickly by vaporizing water and I could repel it should it be necessary. Beyond that I hadn't learned much yet, the guys had decided the focus should be on protecting myself from possible exposure.

I had seen their father, Thomas McLaren, once at the Stonefish and I had a feeling he'd shown up just to appraise me. He'd been nice and polite and stayed no more than five minutes to talk to me but I had the feeling I'd be seeing more of him. Dev had warned me I'd now be invited for any mermaid related events.

On the other hand, I'd seen my own father a total of three hours on Wednesday which had coincidentally been the one evening that week that I wasn't working at the Stonefish. He'd barged in around seven PM, scarfed down some of my leftovers and then headed upstairs to get a few papers from his office and some new clothes. He had slept in his bed but he'd been gone so early the next morning that I hadn't even heard him leave.

In school I'd managed to avoid Jamie, mostly because Mitch and Dev accompanied me pretty much everywhere. It almost seemed like Mitch knew the big mermaid secret but Dev had let me know that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone who wasn't like them. Mitch did not know, though it was obvious that he knew something was up.

I was warned by Matt when I did a three hour shift in the evening on Thursday that Friday was a full moon day and I'd better clear up my schedule to join them. I hadn't had anything planned but I felt a little annoyed that he couldn't have told me about that earlier in the week, it wasn't like he couldn't have known it was a full moon then already.

So I showed up as asked at eight on Friday evening with my bikini top already on under my clothing. A wrap in my duffel along with towels and dry clothing and toothbrush and such, Matt hadn't been very forthcoming about what to expect. Though I wasn't certain if it was because he had purposely meant to be vague or because Thorne had been yelling at him to do something from the other room.

The Stonefish was open and Thorne was running it that night but it was still the meeting point for me. Matt lived in the apartment above it and had told me he'd drive me down to the secluded strip of beach his parents lived near. We'd be leaving from there.

He was leaned up against his old pick-up waiting for me, his arms crossed over his wide chest. Tattoos peeking out from underneath the cuff of his tight, dark gray t-shirt. And just as I was checking him out, he shamelessly returned the favor, sliding his eyes over my body in appraisal. "You look nice, though it's not really appropriate for tonight unless you plan on stripping in front of all of us." He was of course referring to the fact I was wearing jeans and I decided to just roll my eyes and flip him the bird. Just like I liked to get under his skin, he took obvious pleasure in doing the same to me.

"Let's go," I told him after I'd climbed into the truck. "You have trouble with your dad letting you go?" he asked as he started the engine and I just shrugged, "Nah I'm eighteen he's fine with me having my own life." His eyebrows shot up, "So he'd be fine with it if you crashed at my place tonight huh?" "Yeah, since it ain't happening and he knows that," I shot back with a grin. "You can keep on dreaming fish boy."

He laughed but said nothing more until we'd gotten out of town and reached a more secluded house a little down the coast. It was as private as you could get this close to town still and the house really was lovely. Though probably it and the ground around it cost nearly as much as the house my dad owned in town, it was quiet and understated and very tasteful. I liked it immediately.

"This where you grew up?" I asked Matt and he shrugged and nodded, "Born and raised all under that roof. All of us McLaren's since the fish gene got introduced." The way he said it made me realize that in his family everyone since the first had gotten the gene, they could all transform. That probably meant that any kid I'd ever have would be able to grow a tail too. A scary thought, I felt like I could barely protect myself, what would it be like to have a little kid to protect?

"You're lost in deep thought huh? What are you thinking Dani?" Matt asked while placing a big and solid hand on my knee. The heat of him soaking through my jeans into my skin; that felt nice so I was slow to push him away. "Just that your parents must have gone crazy with worry raising three rugrats who can turn into half a fish on a whim."

He tossed back his head and laughed, "Oh yeah, you have no idea." I winked at him, "Bet you were the worst of the lot too, always getting into trouble." "Damn right he was!" exclaimed a female voice through the truck's open window. Startled I noticed that a beautiful middle aged woman had walked up to the side of the truck, my side, and was smiling warmly at me. "You got him pegged haven't you honey?"

"Mrs. McLaren I presume?" I asked while sticking out my hand to shake. She beamed, "Oh Matt she's got manners and everything!" The woman shook my hand firmly and then gestured for me to get out, stopping me from picking up my duffel, Matt would get that she told me. I followed her down a path around the house and into the back yard that overlooked the sea. "You're Dani right? I've heard all about you from both my boys."

"Yes ma'am, Dani Davenport. Thank you for having me," I added, feeling truly grateful that this entire family was welcoming me and showing me the ropes. Matt doing so with little grace and a lot of teasing most of the time, though he'd been the one to train me the hardest in any self-protective skills they could teach me. It was like pulling teeth on a lot of other information half the time with him.

In the backyard I spotted Dev and his dad along with another woman and man that I didn't know. There was also a BBQ set up and lots of food set out, the dinner party already in full swing it seemed. The McLaren matriarch, who I was to call Clara, introduced me to the strangers.

The man was Orlando and he was clearly the older brother to Devon and Matt. With the same swimmers physique and dark hair. Where Matt was rakishly handsome and Dev slender and poster boy cute, Orly had this Indiana Jones vibe going on. He was rugged but professor smart looking and wore khaki and tan colors.

The woman was Orly's wife, Mariana and she was beautiful in a cute, librarian kind of way. With a slightly curvier, full figure that nonetheless looked really good on her. She had her blonde hair up in a no nonsense pony tail and was wearing a modest summer dress. "Welcome to the club girl," Orly's wife said with a smile and then she pulled me into a hug. "We could use another girl to balance stuff out."

The next hour we ate, laughed and talked together and I enjoyed getting to know the rest of the McLarens. They were a nice, warm family with strong ties to each other, being half fish had clearly reinforced their bonds.

When dinner was over Mariana took me inside where I could change out of my jeans and into my wrap. In the meantime she dressed in a wet suit, explaining that she'd join us on the swim. When the weather was nice she liked to do that she confided in me, there was nothing better than swimming with her own merman.

By the time we returned outside I noticed that Clara was the only one left in the backyard, the guys had all gone down the beach and were already bobbing in the water. She saw Mariana and me and followed us down to the surf as well where I noticed a boat lying pulled up on the sand. It was already packed with all kinds of baskets and blankets and towels.

Mariana suggested I lay down behind the boat out of sight of the guys and she'd splash me with water and get my wrap into the boat. I just didn't much feel for having to drag my ungainly fishtail out to sea however so asked if she were okay with wading in with me and carrying the wrap back to the boat. I knew my wrap would get wet that way but I now had the drying thing down pat.

Once I was transformed I heard Mariana gasp in surprise, "Oh darling you're as red as your hair. You're gorgeous!" Then suddenly Matt was right next to me in the shallows, grabbing hold of my hand, "Come on, we gotta hurry up. Moons up in forty minutes!"

I could see that Dev and Orly were pulling the boat into the water with some ropes, Clara already aboard it and Mariana wasted no time but tossed my wrap in it and tugged on her flippers. The moment she lowered her goggles she was caught by her husband around the waist and the two disappeared laughing into the sea.

Clara was starting the boat and heading out to Sharkfell and I followed with Dev and Matt on either side of me. Their father slicing through the water in front of us with clean sharp lines. He was as muscled as he sons and had a similar shape to his tail as Matt did. Where Matt was all in shades of dark blue and black, his dad was a much lighter blue. Dev seemed a little slimmer to them all in comparison and his tail was a blue green with some striking black lines in the fin.

I hadn't had a chance to properly see Orly before he and his wife disappeared into the waves, but I thought he was almost silvery blue on his belly with the same shade of dark blue as his dad on the back.

So far I'd only swam with Matt that one time and it was a lot of fun to swim with them all. Dev was inexhaustible as he darted around me and showed off. While Matt hovered just behind and to my side like a silent shadow, his handsome face dark with worry for some reason. He'd be the one to nudge me to the surface each time I had to come up for air according to the fifteen minute timing he'd worked out on our last swim together. Though it was evident to me that fifteen minutes was not my limit anymore. I thought I could push it to maybe sixteen or seventeen now.

From the McLaren beach it turned out to be a forty minute swim to get to the Moonfell cave and when I came up that last time for air before we reached it Matt swam extremely close to me. To the point that we even bumped together twice and I felt the need to push him away. There was a tingling in the air that time, a hot feeling as that breath went into my lungs but I couldn't hang around to figure out what it was. Matt was pulling me back underwater in a hurry.

Dev had waited for us but their dad had moved on so the last stretch was just the three of us until I spotted the already familiar rows of coral. I'd never swam before in the dark but somehow it didn't seem all that dark underwater to me, allowing me to notice the different colors of the reef and the colorful fishes as if it were still daylight.

Inside the cave I saw that the water was glowing blue, casting light, but Clara had arrived as well and there were lanterns set up inside the cave to illuminate it further. With a blanket spread out near the edge of the pool with several pillows on it and a picnic basket set out. Mariana was still in the water, sitting in Orly's lap as he sat on the underwater ledge that circled the pool. While the McLaren father was hanging on the ledge and helping his wife set up the food and drinks.

Matt had me by the wrist and pulled me to the ledge so I could sit down, then draped himself on it at my side, his tattooed arm spread out so it was almost as if I was leaning into his side. If I scooted away a little he'd somehow naturally float a little closer again. Dev who'd brought up the rear sat down on my other side and since I really didn't want to end up in Dev's lap I ended up sitting really still and stiffly so as not to touch either guy.

"Now what?" I asked Dev who shrugged, "Now we hang out together. The moon affects us unless we're in the Moonfell, so we always hang out here if we can. It'll be stronger on you than on us though since you're a first gen mermaid." I was grateful to at last have an explanation, now I got why Matt had stuck so close on the swim here and why the air had tingled on that last trip to the surface for air.

"Okay so what happens if I do get a dose of moonlight?" I asked and now Dev went sort of red in the face. Which looked rather odd with his blue green ear fins, kind off as though he'd gotten sick or something. "What's wrong?" I asked when he didn't answer and kept getting redder, "Nothing, just don't let the moon hit you is all."

At that point Matt was done with the rather heated conversation he'd been involved in with his dad and turned to me. "You hungry from the swim? Or would you like a drink maybe?" I found myself laughing, "You're off work remember, no need to serve anyone drinks." He grinned back, "Not serving anyone anything except you darling."

The blatant flirt right in front of his family made it my turn to go red in the face, especially since I heard Orly snicker and then whisper something to his wife that sounded suspiciously like: She doesn't stand a chance when he turns on the charm. I even caught Clara and Thomas grinning at each other as if they were entertained by Matt's flirting.

"Right, okay you went there..." I muttered to myself, "In that case I'd like some juice. Any chance there's mango around? Or are you willing to swim out and get it for me if I asked nicely." I batted my eyelashes at him in exaggeration and Matt cracked up and laughed. "You're a riot Dani." He lifted a hand and flicked a strand of wet hair out of my face and then slid into the water and glided across to get to the picnic basket.

I cast a look at Dev and found him grinning too so I leaned in and whispered, "Is he always like this with girls?" He shrugged, "You've known him for over two weeks now, you tell me, he always like this to you?" When I nodded he grinned again, "Well it's your own damn fault for falling into our cave."

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I hope you vote, comment or follow if you like this, I really appreciate it!

Anyone want to guess what the Moons effect might be?

Much love,

Robin