Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1222

Chapter 1222: Chapter 1222

The water was cool and clean. Susan climbed onto his back with a laugh, soaking him completely, and he grabbed her thighs to lift her higher. Emma was humming some melody none of them recognized but all of them felt. Layla and Rose were dancing chest-deep in the current, spinning in slow circles with their fingers laced. Natalie floated on her back, her breasts glinting in the light, hair fanning around her like a crown.

Sophie kissed Lucy in front of him, not out of possession but out of sheer joy. Jude watched their mouths move together, Lucy’s fingers sliding along Sophie’s hip. The river had become a temple, their bodies offerings, every laugh and sigh a prayer.

Zoey wrapped her arms around Jude from behind, her lips brushing his shoulder. "We should build something here," she said. "A place for the water to meet the fire. A home at the edge."

He turned to look at her. "You really want to stay in this spot?"

She nodded. "This place... it saw us break. And now it’s seeing us heal."

He kissed her, slow and deep, and the river pulsed around them as if responding.

They stayed in the water for hours. Touching. Holding. Making love beneath trees whose leaves trembled with golden wind. Each union was a remembering - Susan straddling him on a sun-warmed rock while the others bathed nearby; Emma pulling Sophie close beneath the shallows, hands roaming gently; Layla and Rose tangled in the long grass, legs wrapped tight and gasps muffled in each other’s mouths.

By sunset, they were sprawled in drowsy piles. The air smelled like wildflowers and skin. Their bodies pressed against one another without urgency, only connection. Jude lay in the center, Susan curled under one arm, Rose under the other. Sophie had her head on his thigh, tracing invisible lines on his knee. Zoey was half-draped over Lucy and Emma, her smile lazy and soft. Natalie and Stella lay beside Layla, fingers interlocked.

It was Susan who whispered first. "We should build it here. A new shelter. Something permanent."

"A lodge," Rose murmured, voice thick with contentment. "With a long table, and open walls to see the water."

"And a platform above the trees," Sophie added, "for watching the stars."

"And vines growing inside," Lucy said, dreamily. "Let the forest live with us."

Jude smiled, eyes closed, heart full. "We’ll do it. All of it."

The sky darkened slowly, stars appearing like tiny declarations.

Then a sound - faint and distant - echoed from the east.

Not a chime this time.

A tone.

Lower.

More solid.

Less like a summons.

More like a warning.

Jude sat up slowly, heart ticking just a little faster.

"What was that?" Zoey asked, alert now.

Everyone stilled.

Even the river seemed to hush.

Sophie looked toward the trees. "That wasn’t from the cave."

Rose’s face had changed. Not fear - but something else. Calculation. Recognition. "That sound was new. It doesn’t belong to the spiral."

Jude stood now, his wet pants clinging to his legs, the air suddenly cooler on his skin. "Another presence?"

Emma touched the stone on her necklace, eyes narrowed. "No. Something older. "

Lucy whispered, "Older than the island?"

Susan looked at her. "Nothing’s older than the island."

But Jude wasn’t so sure.

The sound echoed again - closer this time.

They all looked east, where the trees bent slightly, not from wind but from weight. A shadow moved beyond them, tall and deliberate. And from that direction, a faint blue light began to pulse between the trunks.

Zoey moved to Jude’s side. "Did we... awaken something?"

He looked at all of them. Their faces. Their bodies. Their love.

And he felt it too.

The spiral hadn’t been the end.

It had been a key.

And now, something else had unlocked.

The sound rolled again through the trees like a breath drawn deep into the earth’s chest. Not violent. Not panicked. But present. Aware. Watching. The trees themselves seemed to listen, branches shifting not with wind but attention. The wives gathered closer around Jude without needing to say a word. Their bodies were still warm from the river and each other, but the air had changed - it clung to their skin differently now, heavier, like the humidity before a summer storm.

Sophie was the first to move. She stood slowly, her wet hair sticking to her back, gaze fixed toward the east where the glow was softest but undeniable. "It’s not the spiral," she said. "It doesn’t hum like watchers do."

"No," Rose murmured, stepping beside her. "But it doesn’t feel like danger either. Not yet."

"That’s what we said the first time," Zoey said, her voice low.

Layla crossed her arms, her skin still dewy from the river. "Well, we’re not going to figure it out by lying here and staring."

Lucy touched Jude’s arm gently. "What do we do?"

He looked at all of them - his wives, wrapped in moonlight and shadow, standing half-naked and beautiful against the shifting trees. He felt their strength, their curiosity, their love. And he knew the answer wasn’t retreat. Not now.

"We see what it is," Jude said, voice steady. "But together. We don’t split up."

Stella nodded immediately, then moved to grab her pack. "Lights?"

Emma was already tying her cloak over her shoulders. "We might not need them. That glow is real."

They dressed quickly, not fully, just enough to move through the forest with ease. Their bodies moved like water now, practiced in harmony - Jude between Sophie and Susan, Rose just ahead, Lucy flanking Zoey, Layla brushing against Stella’s side like an anchor. They were always touching, always brushing, their physical closeness now more than comfort - it was communication, wordless and woven through instinct.

As they stepped deeper into the trees, the forest changed again. It didn’t thicken - it quieted. The usual sounds of crickets, of the distant chitter of night creatures, fell into hush. The blue light pulsed every few seconds from up ahead, soft as breath but bright enough to mark a path.