Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1518

Chapter 1518: Chapter 1518

Rose sat upright first, her back straight, her hair cascading down her spine like black silk. The wrap she’d worn was now scattered in soft ribbons around her hips, her chest bare, glistening slightly in the light. She looked up, eyes still glowing faintly gold, and smiled.

"It’s awake," she said.

Jude turned his head. "What is?"

"The island," she answered softly. "The true island. Not just the trees and the earth and the monsters we feared. This is its heart. And now it knows us."

Stella sat up next, the curve of her body elegant, wild. She stretched, sighing like someone waking from a dream that had left her soaked in want and wonder. "It knows you , Rose," she said. "You’re the one who touched it first."

Rose looked at Jude. "We all touched it. We just needed to be ready."

Grace ran her fingers down Natalie’s arm, then slipped her hand into Jude’s, squeezing lightly. "It chose him too. He’s the center."

"No," Zoey murmured, propping herself up on her elbow, her skin flushed and marked by Jude’s touch. "He held the center. But the bond is all of us."

Sophie sat up beside him, her hair in waves over her shoulder. "Then what now? We’re changed, but we’re still here. Still us. Is this the end of it, or the beginning?"

Rose stood slowly, her bare feet sinking slightly into the moss. "This was the door. Now we walk through."

Emma stretched and looked toward the trees. "The forest feels different."

"It is," Lucy said quietly. "The silence is gone. It’s not watching anymore. It’s listening ."

Jude stood last, his body sore and alive, the taste of each of them still on his lips and hands and heart. The air vibrated softly against his skin - like a purr, a promise, a beckoning. He looked toward the trees where the golden mist still lingered.

"We should follow it," he said. "Not just the light, but whatever comes next. The island’s changing. I want to know how ."

Natalie reached for her wrap and slung it around her hips, not to hide, but as armor. "Then we go together."

They dressed lightly, fingers brushing and tangling as they wrapped each other in feathers, leaves, and silks that had appeared like offerings near the pond. The island seemed to give them what they needed, draping their bodies in warmth and color, reflecting who they had become - more than lovers, more than survivors. They were bound now. To the island. To each other.

The path that opened before them wasn’t one they’d seen before, though they’d explored every corner of the forest. It sloped downward, the trees bending inward in a high arch that glittered faintly like it had been dusted with starlight. Every footstep echoed gently, like the island was memorizing the rhythm of their movement.

They followed it in silence, passing into a dim, pulsing green that seemed to breathe. The air changed - it wasn’t just sweeter, it was denser, more intimate. The scent of sweat and moss, of sap and salt and heat. Jude’s pulse quickened again, just from the smell, from the way Zoey’s fingers slid down his back and how Sophie leaned close to kiss his shoulder.

They came to a chamber - hidden beneath twisted roots, wrapped in walls of living vine and laced with water that shimmered like molten silver. And in the center was a pool. Not large, but impossibly deep, like it could swallow the sky.

The light around it pulsed gently.

Rose stepped toward the edge, her eyes locked on it. "It’s the well."

"The one from the dreams," Grace whispered.

Jude’s breath caught. He remembered it now - how many times he’d dreamed of this. The edge of the water. The invitation. A body, half-submerged, eyes glowing from beneath the surface. Always reaching for him. Always singing.

"It’s waiting," Rose said.

"For what?" Emma asked.

Rose looked over her shoulder. "For our surrender."

Zoey stepped forward. "Not submission."

Rose nodded. "No. Never that. Just... openness."

Lucy slipped her hand into Jude’s and whispered, "We go together."

He looked at her - at all of them, circled around the pool, lit from within by something no ritual had given them. They didn’t need fire. They were the fire now.

One by one, they stepped into the pool.

The water wasn’t cold. It was alive . It curled around their ankles like hands, like mouths. It pulled them deeper without force. It welcomed .

Jude moved through it slowly, guiding Lucy, then Sophie, then Zoey. Rose was already waist-deep, her arms raised, her mouth moving silently. Stella pressed her lips to Natalie’s, then pulled her into the center with her.

The water rose.

Around their hips.

Around their waists.

Over their chests.

And when it reached their mouths, no one gasped. No one drowned.

They breathed .

The world shifted.

Colors exploded behind their eyes, the taste of each other surging back - salt and moan and heat and love. Jude felt himself dissolve and reform. Lucy’s fingers in his hair. Sophie’s thighs around his waist. Zoey’s mouth on his throat. Emma’s gasp against his ear.

He came in the water and didn’t know where it ended - whether it was him or all of them, whether it was climax or creation. The water didn’t drain. It absorbed. And it gave back something richer, something timeless.

When they surfaced, there was no gasping.

Only silence.

And smiles.

Not the eerie kind. Not the possessed kind.

Just joy.

True, blinding, aching joy.

They climbed out together, skin glowing, eyes soft, hearts pounding in rhythm with the island.

The forest no longer loomed. It welcomed .

Rose kissed Jude first, a slow, lingering kiss that tasted like something final and eternal all at once. Then Sophie, pressing her forehead to his and whispering, "I saw it. Everything. We’re ready now."

Then Lucy, Emma, Natalie, Stella, Grace, Zoey.

Each kiss was a door.

Each woman, a world.

Jude closed his eyes and breathed them in, filled to bursting, utterly whole for the first time.