Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 864 - 866

Chapter 864: Chapter 866

She gasped and went stiff. Her head jerked back, and her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Jude leapt forward, catching her as she stumbled.

Her body was burning hot. Her skin flushed red. Her eyes fluttered, then went wide with something that wasn’t fear, something far more primal.

She looked at him like she didn’t recognize him. Or like she did, but as someone else entirely.

"Grace," he said, shaking her gently.

She didn’t answer.

Instead, she leaned forward, pressing her mouth against his ear.

He felt her breath, ice cold despite her feverish skin.

Then she whispered a single word.

"Mine."

And went limp in his arms.

The others rushed forward, surrounding her. Jude laid her down gently, and slowly her breathing evened. Her color returned to normal. She blinked up at him, confused.

"Did I... faint?" she asked.

He nodded, swallowing the fear in his throat. "Something like that."

She sat up slowly, looking around. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

Lucy looked at Jude. "She doesn’t remember. Just like the others."

"It came from the fire," Zoey whispered. "It’s not just using us. It’s feeding off us."

Jude stood again, his voice hard. "No more pretending. This thing is inside our camp. It’s inside us."

Amelia clutched her chest. "We have to stop it."

"But how?" Scarlett asked.

They all turned to Jude.

He didn’t answer.

Because for the first time since arriving on the island, Jude didn’t know if he could protect them.

And somewhere, in the back of his mind, a quiet voice whispered a terrifying truth:

Whatever was inside them... wasn’t finished yet.

The fire burned low, casting long shadows across the faces of Jude and his wives as they huddled in the clearing, afraid to speak. Grace sat beside him, pale and dazed, her fingers curling unconsciously into the fabric of his shirt as if grounding herself to reality. The others looked at her with a mixture of fear and recognition, each of them processing the truth, that what happened to Grace wasn’t new. It had happened to them too. They just didn’t remember it.

But now they had seen it. The blue smoke wasn’t imagined. It was real. And it had chosen Grace tonight.

Jude stood slowly, his mind racing. He looked around at them, the firelight flickering in their wide eyes. Some had tears brimming, others clung to one another, and a few, like Lucy, Serena, and Scarlett, stood rigid, their instincts leaning toward fight instead of flight. But none of them knew how to fight this.

He broke the silence first. "Everyone into the main shelter. We’ll stay together tonight. No one sleeps alone."

They moved without question. Even the boldest of them seemed to shrink as they gathered their things and walked toward the largest treehouse, one they’d built together as a communal living space during storms or emergencies. No one had called this an emergency yet, but they all felt it in their bones. Something had shifted. This wasn’t just a strange dream or a passing mystery. The island was waking up, or something on it was.

Inside the treehouse, they arranged sleeping mats and cushions across the wooden floor. No one bothered with privacy. It was enough to be near one another. Jude sat with his back against one of the thick central beams, watching the room as the women settled in. His eyes lingered on Grace, who had fallen asleep already, her face soft, peaceful, like nothing had happened at all.

But something had. She’d looked at him with eyes that weren’t hers. Said the word *mine* in a voice that hadn’t sounded entirely human. Possessive. Feral. And then it had vanished. The smoke. The presence. The change.

The others took longer to sleep. Susan whispered quietly to Amelia. Natalie and Serena lay side by side, arms intertwined like a silent agreement to protect one another. Emma sat upright against the wall, staring at nothing, her brows tight with thought. Zoey was pacing slowly across the wooden floor, restless.

Jude didn’t sleep either.

He was watching for it now. Waiting.

The night dragged on, slower than most. Every breeze against the walls, every groan of wood or rustle in the trees outside felt like a signal, like a warning. But nothing came. The blue smoke didn’t return, not to the fire, not to the room, not to any of them. And as the early light of morning filtered through the wooden slats of the walls, the camp began to stir.

Sophie was the first to speak. "We need to talk about what to do."

Jude nodded. "We will. After breakfast. No one goes off alone today."

He sent Zoey and Susan to gather fruits from the safe zone near the north ridge. They were the most physically agile of the group and moved well together. Natalie, Scarlett, and Serena began to rework the old barrier vines around the perimeter, reinforcing the woven fences made from dry stalks, branches, and hardened mud. Sophie and Emma took to cleaning the camp itself, sweeping debris, rechecking weapon caches, sharpening wooden spears and clearing the shallow trenches near the fire pit. Jude watched over everything, but his thoughts were somewhere else entirely.

The blue smoke hadn’t appeared for almost twenty hours now. But he couldn’t shake the feeling it was still there, just hidden. Waiting.

Around midday, he called everyone back. They gathered near the river’s edge where the trees were thinner and the breeze stronger. It felt safer there, under open sky. He stood with his arms crossed, back straight, eyes serious.

"I’ve been thinking about what it wants," he said.

The group fell silent, every face turned toward him.

"It didn’t just *possess* Grace last night," he continued. "It marked her. It said ’mine.’ That’s not random. It’s personal."

Sophie frowned. "But we’re already yours, Jude. All of us. That’s not just love, it’s a bond. A marriage."

"I know," he said. "But this... this isn’t affection. It’s something darker. It’s territorial. As if it’s competing."