Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1684

Chapter 1684: Chapter 1684

Jude and his wives moved closer to the heart of the new village, drawn again to the glowing flower. They sat in a circle beneath it, their bare skin still luminous, their hair kissed by pollen and dew. No words passed for a while. Only touches. Grace tucked herself into Zoey’s side. Scarlet pulled Stella onto her lap. Susan and Natalie leaned against each other, half-drowsing. Sophie’s fingers played absentmindedly with Jude’s as she lay across his lap, eyes closed.

And then Lucy whispered, "I can feel it growing."

They all stilled.

She sat up, her face radiant, her hands sliding to her belly. "It’s so small. But it’s... singing."

Jude leaned in, pressing his lips to her stomach, closing his eyes. "I hear it too."

"Me too," came Natalie’s voice, quiet, shocked. She pressed her hand to her own stomach. "Oh my god."

Rose inhaled sharply. "It’s begun."

Scarlet touched her own body with trembling fingers. "I thought I was just... dizzy."

Emma gave a soft cry and curled forward, holding herself. "It’s not just one of us."

They reached for each other. Held one another. And beneath their palms, beneath glowing skin and sacred warmth, pulses answered.

Twelve hearts. Thirteen bodies.

And new life stirring in more than one.

"I don’t know if I’m scared or in awe," whispered Susan.

"You can be both," Jude said, his voice husky.

Sophie looked up at him. "What happens now?"

He brushed her hair from her eyes. "We grow."

That night, they didn’t dance or make love. They held each other. Kissed slowly. Touched softly. They let the weight of what had begun settle into their bones. The island held its breath around them, listening, learning, growing. Stars blinked awake. Fireflies pulsed gently in the air. And the flower never dimmed.

In the early light of dawn, Jude rose first. The forest stretched before him like a promise. He walked alone for a while, through the soft hush of trees parting gently at his approach. It was quieter now. Not silent - but settled. The song of the island had changed key. It was lower. Deeper. A lullaby instead of a summons.

He reached a ridge overlooking the sea and stood in the growing light. The ocean rolled beneath him, endless and silver-blue. Behind him, the forest bloomed golden. Between both stretched the world he and his wives had remade.

And then he felt her behind him.

Lucy.

She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, her cheek pressing into his back. "You always walk ahead of us."

He turned and kissed her. "Only to make sure the path’s safe."

She smiled up at him. "You’re glowing again."

He chuckled. "So are you."

They stood there in silence for a while, the wind lifting her hair, the scent of salt and blossoms thick around them.

"I dreamed something last night," Lucy said suddenly. "It wasn’t like the others. It wasn’t a memory. It was... forward."

He turned to her, curious. "What did you see?"

She bit her lip. "A child. Small. Bright-eyed. He looked like you. But different. Wild. He ran through the trees, and the trees bent to him. He touched water and it turned gold. He laughed, and the sky answered."

Jude swallowed. "Our son?"

She nodded. "Or daughter. I don’t know. But I think it was ours."

He kissed her again, longer this time. And in that moment, the wind seemed to pause.

When they returned to the clearing, more had arrived. New dreamers. Some alone. Some in pairs. Some already glowing, as if they had touched something sacred before arriving. The village was beginning to take form - woven huts forming like cocoons from trees, fire circles appearing where the moss naturally parted, vines draping for shade. It was not built. It was grown.

Stella laughed as she climbed a curved branch that had formed into a platform overhead. "It’s like the island’s building it with us."

Emma passed food around - fruits, sweet roots, golden leaves that glowed faintly in sunlight. "It knows what we need before we ask."

By midday, children’s laughter echoed from the new arrivals. Little ones danced in the moss, glowing faintly, their parents watching with wide eyes. One of them - a girl with curls and a starburst birthmark on her shoulder - ran straight to Jude and hugged his leg. She didn’t say anything. Just smiled, then darted off again, vanishing into the trees.

Sophie stared after her. "Did you feel that?"

"Yes," Jude whispered.

Grace came to stand beside him, hand pressed to her belly. "This isn’t just a village. It’s a new world."

They all turned toward the flower, now grown taller than any of them, its petals slowly folding inward again as though satisfied.

"We’ll need a name," Rose said. "For this place. For this... us."

Lucy looked at Jude.

He met each of their eyes - twelve women, glowing with new life, new power, new unity. Then he looked up, to the golden sky that had watched them, judged them, and finally embraced them.

He spoke without hesitation.

"Elaria."

They repeated it softly.

Elaria.

The name echoed through the clearing, whispered from tree to tree, carried on birdsong, echoed through stone.

A name not of ownership.

But of becoming.

And so, under the light of a dreaming sky, the island exhaled its approval.

The trees bowed slightly as a soft breeze swept through the clearing, a gentle sigh from the island itself - as if Elaria had always existed, waiting for its name to be spoken aloud. The pulse in the ground beneath their feet quickened, resonating in each of their bodies. Jude could feel it clearly now, like a second heartbeat threading through his bones, through the roots, through Lucy’s palm as she reached for his chest and pressed her fingers to his sternum.

"You feel that?" she whispered.

"It’s responding."

Zoey stepped forward, her feet bare and dusted in pollen, her eyes shining. "I think it always does. It just needed a name to sing."