Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1533

Chapter 1533: Chapter 1533

They moved together, wrapped around Jude one by one, each joining the circle of light. Grace pressed her lips to his spine. Natalie whispered her name against his chest.

Zoey came last, kneeling between his legs with that same familiar fire in her eyes. But when she straddled him, when she lowered herself onto him, the fire softened into something reverent.

"You’ve always been ours," she said, moving with slow perfection. "We just didn’t know what it meant."

He kissed her. Again. And again. Until her glow matched the others.

When it was done, Jude lay at the center of them, the tree’s light pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. They curled around him - Lucy tucked against his right, Sophie to his left, Emma at his chest, Zoey and Grace draped across his legs, Stella and Scarlet curled against his thighs, Natalie and Susan resting near his shoulders, and Rose lying directly beside him, her fingers laced with his.

"You understand now," she said softly.

"I think I do."

"It’s not about control. Or power. Or worship."

"I know," he said, eyes closing.

"It’s about unity."

He exhaled, feeling the pulse settle.

Then he whispered, "What happens next?"

Rose smiled.

And the tree began to bloom.

Soft golden petals unfurled from the twisted black limbs of the tree, opening in slow motion like time itself had surrendered to the rhythm of the island. Each blossom pulsed faintly, as if in breath with the bodies curled beneath its roots. Jude sat up slowly, the warmth of his lovers still pressed to his skin, his breath still ragged from everything they had shared. But he could feel it now - the change wasn’t just within him or within the women who had embraced it. It was in the world itself. The island responded.

Lucy stirred beside him first. She blinked at the glowing canopy above, her fingers brushing along his back. "It’s beautiful."

Emma pushed herself upright, eyes wide. "It’s alive."

"No," Rose whispered, rising from where she lay curled at his other side. "It’s waking up."

The petals shimmered in hues of rose gold and amber, each one luminous with a pulse that echoed in Jude’s chest. He stepped to his feet slowly, naked and unashamed, the moss cool beneath his toes. The women rose with him, forming a loose circle under the tree’s canopy. Their bodies gleamed with dew, their skin radiant with the golden sheen that marked the changed.

Only Susan remained seated, her arms wrapped around her knees, watching with large, wary eyes. "Why does it feel like something’s about to begin?"

"Because it is," Sophie murmured, moving to stand beside her. She extended a hand, her body still glowing faintly, but her face full of warmth. "Come with us."

Susan hesitated, then reached for her hand. Jude watched as Sophie pulled her gently to her feet and folded her into a soft, lingering embrace. The moment their bodies touched, Jude saw it - the faint flicker of light transferring like a slow-burning fuse. Susan shuddered and clung tighter.

"They said it spreads through union," Zoey said quietly. "But maybe it also spreads through love."

"Through trust," Stella added, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

The tree’s branches creaked above them, releasing a soft cascade of golden pollen that drifted down like warm snow. It dusted their hair, their shoulders, their cheeks, and where it touched skin, it sank in. Jude felt it enter him like sunlight through bone.

Suddenly, the forest around them responded. Trees shifted. The earth beneath their feet seemed to breathe. Water trickled in new places. Flowers bloomed where none had existed before. The entire island rippled in reaction, as though this moment - their joining, their acceptance - had triggered something deeper.

"They were right," Natalie said in awe. "The island isn’t changing us. We’re changing it."

Rose stepped forward, facing Jude directly. Her eyes gleamed with that same golden light. "And now it’s time."

"For what?" he asked.

"For you to see what lies beyond the trees."

He tilted his head. "There’s nothing beyond. We’ve searched."

"You’ve searched with fear," she said softly, stepping closer. "Now you’ll walk with faith."

She turned to the east, where a path they had never noticed shimmered faintly between the roots of two massive trees. The foliage bent inwards, framing the trail like an archway.

Zoey’s blade rested at her hip, forgotten but still present. "This wasn’t here before."

"It was," Stella whispered. "But we weren’t ready."

Without hesitation, Rose took the first step. Jude followed her, the others falling in behind. The path glowed underfoot, soft and steady, the moss lighting the way. As they moved, the forest didn’t resist. No snarling creatures. No sharp roots or creeping shadows. Just light, and the slow, steady pulse of something ancient waking up with them.

The journey wasn’t long. Maybe ten minutes of walking, and then the trail opened into a new space - a clearing they had never seen before, surrounded by tall stones carved with markings none of them understood. In the center stood a pool, circular, its surface mirror-smooth and dark as obsidian.

Emma knelt beside it first. "It’s warm."

"Like blood," Grace said softly, dipping her fingers in. "But clean."

"It’s not water," Lucy murmured. "It’s something else."

Rose turned to Jude. "This is where we begin again."

He stepped toward the pool, feeling the warmth of the others around him. One by one, they touched him - hands to shoulders, to arms, to chest, to back - as if anchoring him. Then Rose slipped into the pool without a sound. Her body disappeared beneath the surface with no splash, no ripple, just silence.

Stella followed next. Then Grace. Then Natalie and Emma.

Jude looked at Lucy, who smiled at him with eyes full of love and something ancient. "You’re not alone."

He nodded.

And stepped into the pool.

The sensation was immediate.

Weightless.

Soundless.

Endless.

His body floated, suspended in warmth, in dark, in a golden pulse.