Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1489

Chapter 1489: Chapter 1489

Stella’s voice was calm. "Then you stay. Separate. Alone. Slowly fading, while the island sings louder every day."

"You mean we die," Sophie said.

"No," Rose said. "You forget. You become empty. Lost."

The silence that followed was broken only by the fire.

Jude looked at Lucy. She looked back, eyes wide, uncertain.

Then Rose said, "You’ve already joined, Jude. The moment you let me kiss you."

His breath caught.

Lucy stepped between them. "He didn’t choose anything."

Rose smiled. "He didn’t have to. The island did."

And then she and Stella turned, and vanished into the trees.

The next day, everything was different.

The ground was warmer. The trees shimmered more vibrantly. Even the water tasted sweeter.

And the song was louder.

Everywhere.

Natalie and Susan couldn’t stop humming. Grace stood at the edge of the clearing for hours, whispering to the trees. Sophie sharpened her knife, muttering about escape. Emma paced. Lucy stayed close to Jude. But her eyes had begun to change too. Subtle. Golden flecks in the brown.

That night, Jude couldn’t sleep.

And when he rose, Lucy followed.

They went back to the river, this time without speaking.

She undressed first, stepping into the water without hesitation. He watched her, how the moonlight kissed her curves, how her skin glowed like wet porcelain.

When she turned and reached for him, he went to her.

The water was cold, but her body was heat and light.

She pulled him down with her, into a kiss that wasn’t hurried or hungry, but deep - reverent. Her fingers traced his spine, her legs wrapped around him beneath the water, and when he entered her again, it was like surrender.

Not to her. But to everything.

She moaned his name softly against his mouth, over and over, as he moved inside her, as they rocked together in the current. Every touch echoed, every breath seemed woven into the song that still played behind the trees. And when they came, it wasn’t a climax - it was a merging.

Afterward, Lucy rested her head against his chest, her voice barely audible.

"I don’t know if I’m afraid anymore."

Jude kissed her temple. "Neither am I."

And far beyond the trees, the black tree bloomed.

The petals unfurled in silence, dark as midnight, yet laced with veins of glowing gold that shimmered like molten light. The tree’s bloom was slow, deliberate, pulsing with energy that rippled through the roots beneath the island, through the soil and stone and water - through the bodies of those already changed, and those standing on the edge.

Jude felt it deep in his bones as he and Lucy emerged from the river. The air had changed. It buzzed against their skin like static, like need. Lucy’s fingers trembled in his as they climbed the bank together, the moonlight turning her soaked body to silver. She turned toward him, her expression unreadable, lips slightly parted, her hair clinging to her shoulders. There was still Lucy in her eyes - tenderness, curiosity, desire. But there was something more too. A flicker. Like a candle lit in a windless room.

"We need to go back," she said quietly.

"To the tree?"

She shook her head. "To the others."

The clearing was empty when they returned. No fire. No voices. Just the low, constant hum that seemed to be coming from the ground now. Jude reached down and touched the dirt. It was warm. Breathing.

"They’re gone," Lucy whispered.

"No," Jude said. "They’re already there."

He didn’t know how he knew, only that the pull had begun in his chest, steady and magnetic. He looked to the forest and felt it calling - like a tide drawing them forward, impossible to resist.

And so they followed.

The walk wasn’t long, but it felt eternal. Every tree shimmered faintly. Every root seemed to shift just slightly underfoot. As if the forest had eyes, breath, desire. Lucy didn’t let go of his hand once. They didn’t speak. Words felt too fragile, too small for the moment swelling around them.

When they arrived at the altar clearing, the others were already there.

Sophie stood at the center, barefoot, wearing only a loose wrap that clung to her curves in the moonlight. Her hair was down, long and wild, lips parted in a soft gasp like she’d just woken from a dream. She turned to Jude and Lucy, and for a moment, the fire came back into her eyes.

"You came," she said.

"We had to," Jude replied.

Emma stood beside her, looking shaken but present. Her arms were wrapped around herself, but she didn’t step back when Zoey approached from behind and gently ran her hands down Emma’s arms. She shivered, but didn’t pull away.

Rose stood just beyond the altar, one hand resting on the black tree’s twisting bark. She looked regal, radiant, impossibly calm.

"It begins now," she said.

Layla and Grace were dancing again, slow and hypnotic, the rhythm of their movement matching the beat of the island itself. Stella was kneeling at the base of the tree, her fingers buried in the moss, lips moving in a silent chant. Scarlet and Natalie stood to either side of Rose, eyes half-lidded, bodies swaying like reeds in the wind.

"What begins?" Jude asked, even though he already knew.

Rose stepped forward and cupped his face in her hands.

"The joining."

The others moved closer.

They didn’t rush. They circled around Jude and Lucy slowly, reverently, as though witnessing something sacred. The air was thick with scent - wet earth, crushed flowers, sweat, skin. The island pulsed louder, and the women began to hum.

Not a song.

A note.

A low, primal vibration that sank into the blood.

And then Rose kissed Lucy.

Not out of dominance or command, but invitation. Her lips soft, lingering, her hand on Lucy’s waist. Lucy gasped and clung to her. When they parted, Rose turned and kissed Jude again, deeper this time, and something opened inside him like a door he hadn’t known existed.