Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1636

Chapter 1636: Chapter 1636

The stars didn’t fall - they descended. Drifting slowly, shimmering with golden fire, they slipped through the strange sky like they had been watching since the beginning, waiting for this precise moment to return.

Jude lay still, Lucy curled tight against his chest, Rose’s breath warm at his shoulder, and the others tangled around them like vines and silk and starlight. But his eyes were open, watching the slow descent of a star no bigger than a fist, pulsing gently, making no sound as it hovered above them.

It paused just above their circle.

Then it touched down, resting at the center of their spiral of bodies, where their heat still rose from the moss.

None of them moved.

Until Sophie rose, naked and gleaming, her lips parted with awe.

She stepped forward, drawn like a tide pulled by moonlight. The star pulsed as she approached, as though recognizing her. Jude held his breath.

She reached out - and the light moved.

Not away.

Into her.

There was no flash. No explosion.

Just the soft flicker of stars sinking beneath her skin.

Sophie gasped, staggered back, and collapsed into Jude’s arms.

He caught her, cradled her, feeling her tremble.

Her eyes opened slowly. "I saw... everything."

He brushed her hair back. "Tell us."

"I saw more Spiral Trees. Not just ours. Dozens. Hundreds. Each one blooming in a different place. Some growing alone. Some with others like us. And at the center of them all..." Her voice caught, her breath shallow. "There’s a place. A... source."

Rose leaned closer, her body pressed against Jude’s side. "A source of what?"

Sophie looked around the circle, her voice quieter now. "Of all of this. Of us. Of the love we made. The Spiral Tree didn’t create the island. It responded to the source. And it’s calling us."

Jude felt it then. Not in words. In rhythm.

A subtle pull, like his heartbeat had grown a second echo.

Lucy sat up, her face drowsy with afterglow, but alert now. "We just got here. We built this."

"We’re not leaving it," Jude said, kissing her hand. "But maybe we’re expanding."

Grace stirred, her voice soft. "Sophie, where is it?"

Sophie closed her eyes. "Far. But it’s not distance. It’s depth. It’s beneath us. Inside us."

"Like diving?" Zoey asked.

Sophie nodded slowly. "Like becoming."

Emma stood next, her skin golden and flushed, but her stance grounded. "Do we have to go?"

"No," Sophie said. "It’s not a command. It’s an invitation."

Stella knelt beside the star’s resting spot. "Then we choose."

Susan sighed, stretching, her smile wry and sleepy. "And I was just getting used to the moss beds."

Scarlet leaned over and kissed her neck. "We’ll make better ones there."

Jude looked around at them all. Each woman glowing faintly now, hair curling with golden pollen, limbs still damp with sweat and light. They had given everything to this moment - love, fear, resistance, surrender. They had broken apart and fused together.

And now the island wanted more.

No.

Offered more.

"Then let’s go together," he said. "Not today. Not now. But soon."

Rose stood. "We’ll rest. Build here. And when we’re ready, we’ll follow the rhythm."

They didn’t cheer. They didn’t speak.

They simply moved, like water, like a heartbeat. The star remained where it had touched down, a warm ember in the moss. Their fire for the night.

That evening, they wrapped themselves in one another again - not from hunger, but comfort. The joining wasn’t frenzied this time, but slow, soft, full of kisses and whispers and warmth. Hands curled in hair, lips traced ribs and hips, laughter spilled between breaths. They drifted together, again and again, the way tides slip against the shore.

Jude held Lucy as she slept, her breath slow against his neck. Rose spooned behind him, her leg thrown across his waist, her fingers resting on his heart. Sophie slept beside her, her hand resting over the faint glow that still pulsed beneath her sternum.

They weren’t finished.

Not yet.

The valley would hold them.

But soon...

Soon they would dive.

The valley woke with them, though it had never truly slept. Dew glistened on the glowing moss, not cold but warm, like the island itself was perspiring with anticipation. Jude stirred first, limbs tangled with Lucy’s and Rose’s, the scent of soft fruit and sun-warmed skin filling the air. The starlight ember that had descended during the night still glowed faintly in the center of their moss-ring, pulsing in sync with their breathing as though it had learned their rhythm, or perhaps given it to them.

He sat up slowly, careful not to wake Lucy, who murmured something in her sleep and curled tighter against his side. Her golden lashes fluttered as if she were still dreaming the island’s voice.

Sophie was already awake, crouched at the edge of the clearing, her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked different now. Not changed in form, but in energy - more attuned. More still. As though the star hadn’t just merged with her body, but also her purpose.

Jude joined her, and she turned to him with a soft smile.

"I heard it again," she said. "While I was asleep. Or... not quite asleep. A rhythm. A language without words. It’s waiting for us."

"The source?" he asked.

She nodded, gaze flickering to the heart of the valley. "It’s not a place. Not exactly. It’s a crossing."

"To where?"

She hesitated. "To what we become next."

Jude watched the others begin to stir - Zoey stretching languidly over Stella, Grace yawning as she tangled her fingers in Scarlet’s curls. Emma emerged from one of the flowering alcoves they’d woven together, brushing pollen from her thighs, her face flushed and glowing. Natalie was still asleep, her head resting on Susan’s stomach, both of them snoring lightly. Rose opened her eyes slowly, and the first thing she looked at was Jude.

"Today?" she asked, propping herself up on one elbow.

"Not yet," he said.