Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1486

Chapter 1486: Chapter 1486

Rose sat up first, her body bathed in the afterglow of ecstasy and divinity. The light from the altar no longer pulsed, but shimmered like a dying flame - not extinguished, only settled. She turned to look at Jude, her fingers gently brushing his cheek. "It accepted us."

He could barely speak, lungs still heaving from the high of what they had just become. The silence that followed wasn’t absence, but saturation - every sound swallowed in the thick reverence of what had passed. The island didn’t hum anymore. It listened.

Grace stirred next, curling against Stella, their bodies still tangled. Stella’s eyes were wide, pupils dilated, a stunned kind of awe stretching across her face. "Did we... Did we just wake something up?"

"No," Layla whispered, lips touching Zoey’s neck. "We became it."

Jude sat up slowly, his muscles weak but charged with something deeper. Beneath the physical exhaustion, he could feel it - something had changed, not just in him, but in all of them. Their skin tingled like it had soaked in starlight. Their breath synced unconsciously. Even their gazes moved like a current, always aware of each other, connected now by more than emotion or touch.

Natalie was the one who noticed first.

"The roots," she said, sitting up and pointing to the altar.

They all turned. The cracked stone had not just split - something had grown from within. Thin tendrils of glowing roots snaked out across the ground, slowly creeping toward the outer edge of the clearing. Wherever they touched, the moss turned silvery, and the trees leaned in, as though listening.

"They’re spreading," Susan murmured.

"Like veins," Emma added, her voice quiet. "Carrying us through the island."

Rose stood, unashamed in her nakedness, the fading altar light catching the golden hue of her eyes. "We didn’t offer ourselves to the island. The island offered itself to us."

"Why?" Lucy asked, still lying with her head in Jude’s lap, her fingers playing with his. "What does it want?"

"Not want," Rose said. "Need. It’s been alone for too long. It chose us."

Sophie’s jaw clenched. "You’re saying the island is alive? Sentient?"

"More than sentient," Rose answered. "It’s a being of connection. It thrives on intimacy, communion... love."

Zoey shook her head, standing. "This is insane. I felt what we did. I can still feel it. But it’s too much. Too fast."

"It’s truth," Grace said softly, resting a hand on Zoey’s arm. "We’ve just forgotten how to listen."

Jude finally stood, lifting Lucy with him. The roots shifted beneath his feet like they recognized his weight. The wind picked up, warm and low, moving through the leaves in a pattern - not random, but rhythmic. Almost like breath.

He looked around at his wives - his soulmates - glowing, breathing, changed. And something inside him clicked into place.

"We go back to camp," he said. "Together."

Rose nodded once, and began to lead the way.

The walk back through the forest felt surreal. Every step felt like a ripple on a larger surface. The trees leaned closer, vines slithered aside, flowers bloomed as they passed. Creatures watched them from the canopy, glowing eyes peeking out with no malice, only curiosity.

By the time they reached the clearing of their camp, the sun was setting - not red this time, but violet and silver, casting the sky in dreamlike hues.

The treehouse waited, unchanged, but the space around it had transformed. New growth curled up the trunks, new flowers had bloomed in shades they’d never seen. The river nearby shimmered with bioluminescent trails.

Stella stopped just before entering the campfire circle. "It’s started spreading here too."

Sure enough, the same roots from the altar now crept along the earth, spiraling toward the firepit in quiet spirals. Not invasive - more like a heartbeat echoing out from where it had begun.

Emma exhaled slowly. "Are we safe?"

Rose looked at her. "Safer than we’ve ever been. It wants us whole. Not hurt."

They took the evening slow.

Susan and Natalie lit the fire. Zoey made food, though she barely touched hers. Lucy sat on Jude’s lap, pressing kisses into his neck when she thought no one noticed. Scarlet hummed something soft and familiar, a lullaby maybe, and Sophie braided her hair in the flickering light. Grace and Stella curled up together in a hammock, dozing before the stars arrived.

And Rose sat across from Jude, watching him.

When their eyes met, she said, "You still have doubts."

"I have questions," he admitted. "But I’m listening now."

"That’s all it asks."

Later that night, after the others had curled into soft sleep, Jude wandered toward the river. He needed the cold, the clarity. He stepped into the water, letting it rise to his knees. The stars above reflected like a thousand small eyes, watching without judgment.

He didn’t hear Lucy approach until her arms slipped around him from behind.

"Couldn’t sleep either?" she whispered, pressing her chest to his back, her skin warm against the chill of the water.

"No," he said. "Too much inside me."

Lucy pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades. "Do you regret it?"

"No," he said. "I just don’t understand all of it yet."

"You will," she promised, moving around him, water swirling at her thighs. She reached up, touching his cheek, then pulled him into a kiss - slow, deep, grounding.

He held her face in both hands, drinking her in like air, anchoring himself to the only thing that had never changed: the love that kept him breathing.

When they pulled apart, Lucy smiled. "Let me stay with you tonight. Just me."

Jude nodded.

They lay together on the riverbank, the water lapping softly at their toes, the sky vast above them. Lucy rested her head on his chest, her fingers tracing absent circles over his stomach.

"You remember the first time we made love?" she asked softly.

"Every second of it."

She lifted herself over him, straddling him slowly, her hair a curtain of silk around his face.