Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 928

Chapter 928: Chapter 928

Natalie crossed her arms. "And what does it want?"

"I don’t know yet. But I think it’s what the gods feared. It might be older than them."

That caused a murmur. Layla reached for Serena’s hand. Grace moved to stand beside Jude, as if by instinct.

"What should we do?" Zoey asked.

He looked at each of them in turn. "We prepare. Today, I want three groups. One with me. One to reinforce the orchard’s protections. And one to go north toward the spiral grove. The tree appeared yesterday. Something might grow again."

They didn’t question the orders. They never did when he took this tone. Susan, Rose, and Lucy joined him. They would walk with him into the heart of the jungle, past the burnt-clearings and into the old ravine. Grace led the defense group, Stella, Scarlet, Sophie, and Natalie, with Laurel and Raven staying close. Serena, Zoey, Layla, and Emma would scout the northern woods.

They split before midday.

Jude’s group moved fast. The mist thickened the deeper they went, and the glyphs on his arms brightened with every mile. Birds scattered from the trees in frightened bursts. The air grew hotter, heavier. Even the soil beneath their feet seemed to vibrate faintly.

They reached the heart of the ravine before the sun hit its peak. The ground was cracked and blackened, the trees twisted as if in pain. And at the center was a new growth, a tower of stone and bark, rising twenty feet into the air, shaped like a blooming flower but hard as iron.

Lucy reached out, fingers brushing the surface. "It’s warm."

Rose crouched to inspect the roots. "It’s feeding on something beneath. Blood? Or memory?"

Susan looked at Jude. "What is this?"

"I think it’s a seal," he said quietly. "Something’s buried here."

He stepped forward and pressed his palm against the surface. For a moment nothing happened. Then,

A shudder through the ground.

A whisper in his ear.

A scream in his blood.

He stumbled back, breath ragged. "It wants to rise."

Susan caught him. "What does?"

"I don’t know. But it remembers me. Or something like me."

They marked the area with blue stones, warning glyphs, and smoke flares. Jude left a thread of his blood on the seal, just enough to mark his presence without feeding the thing beneath.

By the time they returned to the orchard, the rain had stopped. The air smelled of burned wood and something else, wet stone, like the inside of a cave that hadn’t been opened in centuries.

Grace met him at the archway. "We reinforced the glyph rings. The watchers helped."

He blinked. "They came back?"

She nodded. "Not close. But they stood at the edge while we worked. And when we lit the candles, they pulsed with light. They’re watching too."

That night, they gathered in the center of the orchard. No fire this time, only candlelight, and the soft glow of Jude’s glyphs.

The wives sat around him, quiet, hands clasped, eyes focused.

He spoke slowly.

"There’s something beneath this island. Something the gods buried, or fled from. I don’t think it wants to harm us, but I don’t think it understands us either. It’s old. Ancient in a way that makes gods seem young."

Scarlet leaned forward. "Do you think it’s evil?"

"I don’t know," Jude said. "But I think it’s lonely."

Zoey tilted her head. "Like you were. When you came here."

He smiled faintly. "Maybe."

Sophie took his hand. "Then we teach it. The way we taught you."

He looked at them, his heart swelling so full it hurt. "I don’t deserve you."

"You’re ours," Grace whispered. "That’s all that matters."

Later, when the candles burned low and the moon rose full and red, Jude lay beneath the fig-glyph tree with Rose curled against his left side, Lucy tracing patterns on his chest with a fingertip, and Zoey straddling his hips, her breath catching as she moved with slow, deliberate grace.

Susan kissed his shoulder, murmuring words in the old tongue they had begun to remember. Layla danced nearby, naked in the moonlight, arms outstretched, hips swaying like water. Serena and Stella moved together, mouths locked, hands tangled in each other’s hair, their sounds blending with the wind.

Scarlet bit Jude’s ear and whispered something filthy that made his spine arch. Grace sat nearby, watching, not with jealousy but with reverence, eyes wide, one hand slowly stroking between her own thighs.

Sophie kissed his lips. Natalie cupped his face and said, "You’re still human. And that makes you beautiful."

And when he came apart, when the stars blurred and his body shuddered with release, it was not in fear, not in surrender, but in worship.

He belonged to them.

And together, they belonged to this island.

Whatever waited beneath, whatever gods watched from the edges, they would face it hand in hand.

Not as exiles.

But as family.

The dawn was soft and silver, almost hesitant, as if even the sky needed time to recover from last night’s revelation. Jude woke tangled in limbs and hearts , Grace’s arms curled around him, Lucy’s back pressed against his, Rose kneeling at his side, face flushed with sleep and something more primal. He watched the slow rise and fall of their breathing, their hair caught together like vines, the quiet peace that followed release. The glyphs pulsed softly into the new morning light, a reminder of what he carried.

When he finally shifted, lifting his head just high enough to observe without waking them fully, he felt the weight of all twelve women in his body. Scarlett’s legs were draped over his, Stella lay across his calves, Sophie’s hand still clutched his shirt. Natalie and Serena slept curled along his other side. Layla’s voice murmured in sleep. Only Emma and Zoey were absent , reflection of last night’s configuration or retreat for rest , he didn’t know. He didn’t care. He just felt the fullness of presence.

He touched each softly before rising: Grace’s shoulder, then Lucy, then Rose’s cheek.