Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1604

Chapter 1604: Chapter 1604

The fruit was warm against his palm, its skin pulsing faintly like a heart wrapped in golden light. It weighed more than it should have - dense with meaning, with consequence. Around him, the women held their breath, their eyes trained on the way his fingers curled around it, how his chest rose and fell in rhythm with the valley’s hush. The tiny silver creature on his shoulder sang no longer. It simply watched.

Jude looked at each of them, one by one. Lucy, radiant and wide-eyed, her lips parted with a hunger that wasn’t just desire - it was longing. Emma, fierce and alert, as if already preparing for what would come next. Zoey, arms crossed, but her posture softening, vulnerable. Grace, calm and open. Stella, trembling slightly. Susan, clutching her child and whispering prayers to a god she no longer believed in. Natalie, her hands folded, lips set. Scarlet, leaning forward like she already saw the future. Sophie, rigid. And Rose, always Rose - knowing, steady, waiting.

He bit into it.

The moment his teeth pierced the skin, the world shattered.

Not in pain.

In expansion.

Light poured out - not from the fruit, but from them . A flare from each of their bodies ignited like the spark of stars being born. Jude stumbled backward but didn’t fall. The fruit dissolved in his hand. Liquid gold ran down his wrist, absorbed instantly into his skin. His chest burned - not like fire, but like awakening. Something ancient, something buried in marrow, now remembered itself through him.

Sophie gasped and fell to her knees. Rose cried out, hands to her heart. Lucy clung to Zoey as a pulse surged from the tree and through the moss beneath their feet.

And then - the island groaned.

The sound echoed for miles, a low, deep vibration that wasn’t heard so much as felt . It traveled through bone and belly, stirred the rivers, woke sleeping roots. Flowers bloomed and wilted in the same breath. The air itself shimmered. The sky flickered violet and gold.

And then, silence.

Their eyes slowly opened.

Everything was... more.

Jude’s skin no longer glowed faintly - it shimmered like a living sun. The women stared at him with something between awe and familiarity. Their own bodies had changed again, too. The silver had deepened into iridescence. Their eyes gleamed with starlight. Their hair floated slightly as if held by invisible currents.

"I feel..." Stella began, but couldn’t finish.

"There aren’t words anymore," Grace said.

Natalie stepped closer to Jude. "You gave it to all of us."

He nodded, trying to catch his breath. "I didn’t mean to."

"You were meant to," Rose said, brushing her hand over his chest where the light pulsed strongest. "The fruit was never yours alone. It was us. All of us."

Emma circled the tree, her fingers skimming the bark. "The valley is changing."

Already, the moss was thickening, taking on a hue that mirrored their new glow. The roots of the violet tree were expanding, creeping out like curious hands. In the sky above, the golden clouds began to shift - drawing new patterns, a language none of them had seen before.

Sophie stood slowly. "This isn’t the end."

"No," Jude said. "It’s another beginning."

The silver creature fluttered down from his shoulder and landed at the base of the tree, curling itself into a spiral. It blinked once, and its glow faded. It had done what it came to do.

"What now?" Susan asked, her voice steady despite the enormity of what had happened.

"We build," Lucy said.

"We protect," Zoey added.

"We live," Rose said.

They didn’t need a vote. No ritual. No council.

They began.

Within hours, they had cleared part of the valley. The soil obeyed them. When Emma touched the ground, it parted. When Grace scattered seeds from her pouch, they sprouted instantly, vines coiling around support beams they hadn’t even raised yet. Natalie discovered the water nearby had changed too - cooler, sweeter, infused with light.

By nightfall, their new shelter rose - less a house and more a haven. Open walls. Living supports. Rooms made from woven vines and flowering branches. Beds of moss. Pools of hot, glowing water. A single open chamber at the center, where the roots of the violet tree had formed a cradle.

It was where Jude lay now.

And where they came to him.

Not in worship.

In sharing .

Lucy came first, bare and smiling, her body sliding against his with a sigh that filled the chamber with warmth. She straddled him slowly, her hands cradling his face, her lips tasting of berries and need.

"I wanted to feel the new you," she whispered.

"I’m still me," he said, thrusting up into her gently.

"I know," she breathed, her eyes fluttering as she rode him. "That’s why I’m falling in love all over again."

He kissed her neck, his hands gripping her hips, guiding her rhythm. She clenched around him, her pleasure building fast. And when she came, her whole body lit up, her glow surging into him like fire.

Then Emma came next. Then Zoey. Then Stella, trembling but eager. Grace kissed him softly before taking him in. Susan laid beside him while she moved atop him, one hand always on her child. Natalie brought laughter into the chamber, Scarlet brought heat. Sophie came last, watching them all before she finally knelt beside him.

"I’m scared," she whispered.

"So was I," he said.

She climbed atop him, slow, deliberate. "Then let’s be brave together."

They joined, and the chamber pulsed with golden light again.

By dawn, they lay entangled. Tired. Glowing.

Alive.

The violet tree hummed above them.

The island pulsed beneath.

And outside, beyond the edges of what they thought was their world, something stirred.

Watching.

Waiting.

It moved beneath the island - not like an animal or a beast, but like a breath too old to have shape. A sigh from before the sky had names. It coiled through the roots beneath their feet, slow and endless, listening to the rhythm of what they had become.