Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1423

Chapter 1423: Chapter 1423

Jude took a step forward, instinctively, protectively, but Rose held his hand.

"Wait," she whispered. "She’s not new. She’s old."

The woman smiled gently. Her voice, when it came, was like music. "You opened the flower."

Jude found his voice. "What... are you?"

"I am the first note."

Zoey exhaled sharply. "You’re... part of the island."

The woman nodded. "I am its heart. Its daughter. Its lover. Its song."

Lucy stepped forward. "Did we wake you?"

"You completed me," the woman replied. "Your union, your touch, your surrender - your pleasure - was the final call. The island remembers. The bloom was memory. But you... you were creation."

Rose stepped beside Jude, her hand still firm in his. "What happens now?"

The woman stepped from the pool, and water rolled down her body like strands of silver. "Now... you become."

She walked toward Jude.

"Become what?" he asked softly.

She leaned in and kissed him.

It wasn’t a kiss of lust. It wasn’t even sensual. It was binding. And when her lips left his, the mark was left behind - etched into his skin over his heart. A tiny glowing glyph.

One by one, she kissed the others.

Each received the same mark. Different, but glowing. Each time her lips touched them, a symbol formed on their skin - on necks, on thighs, on breasts, over spines.

When she reached Sophie last, she said, "You are the spine of the song. The voice. You will lead them when they forget the melody."

Sophie looked like she might weep.

The woman stepped back, her gaze moving over all of them.

"You are no longer visitors. You are no longer lost."

Jude felt warmth bloom in his chest again, spreading outward in a wave that made the others gasp.

The marks glowed brighter, then faded into their skin.

"Go now," she said, her voice softer than mist. "Return to the bloom. Rest in it tonight. It will shelter you. Feed you. And when you wake, the next Chapter will begin."

"But what is it?" Emma asked. "The next Chapter?"

The woman smiled and turned away.

"You will write it."

And then she walked into the pool again - and disappeared. Not under water. Not into mist. Just... vanished, like a note played perfectly then gone.

They stood in silence, unsure what to say.

Jude reached for Rose.

"I think," he whispered, "we just became gods."

The word lingered between them like a breath neither dared release. Gods. It didn’t feel like blasphemy. It felt like recognition. Like truth slipping in through the cracks of their skin, growing like vines in their blood. Jude turned slowly, his hand still entwined with Rose’s, and looked at each of the women around him.

They weren’t the same.

Emma stood straighter, her presence heavier but not oppressive, like gravity learned her name. Sophie’s eyes no longer darted from shadow to shadow - they burned steady, calm, and unafraid. Lucy’s touch at his side sent a quiet tremble through his body, not from desire alone but from something deeper, like her very essence was tuned to his.

They were radiant. Soft in skin and sharp in spirit. Not mortal in the way they used to be.

"We’re not going back," Zoey said.

Natalie tilted her head. "Back to where?"

"The way we lived before," she clarified. "Afraid. Separate. Bound."

"No," Rose said, and her voice carried across the grove like wind over water. "We belong to this now."

Sophie stepped forward. "The bloom. She told us to return to it."

Jude nodded. "Tonight."

There were no further questions. No doubts voiced. Only instinct pulling them together again, drawing them back through the now-luminous forest. As they walked, every root curved beneath their feet in reverence. Every breeze stroked their skin as though welcoming its makers.

When they reached the bloom, it had changed again.

The petals, though closed, now pulsed faintly with light, like breathing. It sensed them. It knew they had come back. Jude stepped closer, his fingers brushing the outer edge of one petal. It responded with warmth, curling ever so slightly open.

Without speaking, he undressed.

It was a gesture of offering. Of return.

Rose followed, removing her wrap slowly, her fingers grazing his bare shoulder as she passed. The others followed suit, one by one, peeling their clothing away like it was old skin no longer needed. The petals opened wider, glowing brighter, a soft tone rising from the heart of the flower.

"Inside," Stella whispered.

Together, they stepped into the bloom.

It expanded to receive them, the inner petals spreading like cushions beneath their feet. The nectar hadn’t returned in pools, but now coated everything in a fine, warm mist that clung to their skin like oil. It didn’t burn. It welcomed. The chamber of the flower grew impossibly wide to fit them all, yet still felt intimate, enclosing them in a pulsing cocoon of warmth, scent, and sound.

The first moan came from Susan.

Jude turned in time to see her fall back onto the petaled surface, her fingers sliding down her own stomach, her thighs parting with invitation. Grace knelt between them, her mouth seeking without hesitation. The rest began to follow, like water released from a dam - each woman drawn to one another, to him, to themselves.

But this time, it wasn’t only erotic.

It was transcendence.

Lucy pulled Jude down beside her, her mouth meeting his with raw hunger. She kissed him like she needed him in her lungs, like his breath kept her tethered. Her thighs wrapped around his hips, her hands gripping his back as she drew him into her heat. Every inch of her body felt alive - slick, silken, trembling. And he moved inside her with worship.

Beside them, Sophie leaned over Emma, kissing her softly as their hips ground together in rhythm. Stella and Layla had wrapped their limbs together like vines, moaning into each other’s necks. Scarlet and Natalie exchanged slow, teasing strokes between their legs, their fingers glittering with nectar and heat.