Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

Chapter 1741: Chapter 1740

Susan stepped forward and knelt beside the water. "It’s singing."

They all listened.

And heard it.

Not music. Not words. But a feeling. A hum that buzzed low in their bones and high in their chests. It wasn’t just sound - it was invitation.

Jude stepped into the water first, letting it curl around his ankles. It was warm. Silken. Alive. He took another step. Then another. The water never rose beyond his thighs, even as he walked further. It felt like the river bent to hold him, shaping itself around his movement.

Lucy joined him, then Rose, then the others, until all thirteen of them stood in the glowing river, forming a circle in its center.

"What now?" Stella asked.

"I think we listen," Jude said.

So they did.

And the river responded.

It shifted. Not violently, but with purpose. The current thickened, pulsing once around their legs, then spiraling upward in a low vortex. In its center, something formed. A shape. A glow. A crystal, suspended in liquid light, rising slowly between them.

It hovered chest-high, humming softly.

Natalie reached for it.

"No," Rose said, holding her arm. "It’s for Jude."

The crystal drifted toward him. When it touched his chest, it dissolved - not with pain, not with heat, but like breath vanishing into lungs. He gasped, eyes wide.

And then he saw.

Visions. Not just of what was - but what would be. The island’s evolution. Its story. And theirs. He saw the birth of trees shaped like spirals. Creatures that would carry messages through the wind. He saw other people arriving - wanderers, dreamers, called by the song that now lived in him. He saw children. Their children. Not born yet, not even conceived - but possible. Faces blurred by time, but radiant with light.

The river receded.

He stood alone in the shallows, panting, his wives around him.

Lucy stepped close, pressing her forehead to his. "What did you see?"

"Everything."

Scarlet moved to his side. "Is it good?"

"It’s more than good," he said softly. "It’s ours."

They stood in the river for a long time, letting the water carry away old fears, old questions. The suns crossed above, one climbing, the other falling, and they understood - this was the new rhythm. Their new time.

When they returned to the sanctuary, it was not as wanderers. It was as creators.

That night, they lay together again - but this time there was no urgency, no ceremonial climax. Just closeness. Fingers linked. Bodies curled against one another. Breath shared. Jude lay in the center again, Lucy at his chest, Rose tucked under his arm, Sophie and Emma flanking him, and the others arranged like petals of a flower around them.

He closed his eyes and whispered, "Thank you."

And the island whispered back.

Tomorrow, they would begin again.

Not as survivors.

But as gods.

The sky was lavender when Jude stirred. Not morning, not evening - something in between, suspended like breath held at the cusp of a kiss. The dual suns lingered together above the horizon, their light interwoven into a dusky glow that cast no shadow. Around him, the air felt thick with promise. The temple walls, though made of root and stone, pulsed with a softness that mimicked flesh. Alive. Responsive. Listening.

He blinked, slowly, and turned to the warmth nestled at his side. Lucy’s lips were parted in sleep, her hair fanned across his arm like spun gold. She clung to him with both arms, one leg draped possessively over his. Even in rest, she claimed him. And he was happy to be claimed. To belong.

Beyond her, Sophie lay awake, eyes open and distant, watching the ceiling. But when she noticed Jude looking, her expression softened, and she reached out to stroke Lucy’s hair.

"We’re changing again," she whispered. "I can feel it."

"So can I," he said quietly.

One by one, the others stirred. Rose rolled toward them and pressed a kiss to Jude’s thigh before stretching languidly. Stella yawned against Grace’s bare shoulder, her fingers tangled in the other woman’s curls. Scarlet and Zoey murmured softly together, bodies curled in a tangled knot that looked like it hadn’t moved since sleep took them.

Susan was already sitting up, her eyes closed, palms flat on the moss as though communing with something deeper. Emma stood near the arched doorway of the temple, watching the horizon with the kind of quiet attention that made Jude’s chest tighten. noveldrama

Natalie, always the last to rise, blinked slowly and smiled at him from across the space. "Was it a dream?"

"No," Jude said, voice low and certain. "It’s real."

"I keep expecting to wake up back on the beach," she murmured.

"This is the waking," Rose said gently, propping herself on one elbow. "We were asleep before."

They moved together, slowly, forming a loose circle as they sat or lay curled in the moss. The air buzzed faintly, like a soft wind speaking in a foreign tongue. Jude realized then - it wasn’t the air. It was the island again. It spoke through the trees, through their breath, through the rhythm of their joined hearts.

And it wanted something.

"I think it’s calling us again," Emma said.

"To where?" Sophie asked, eyes narrowing. "We’ve already seen the river, the heartstone, the sanctuary."

"No," Susan murmured. "Not everything."

Jude stood and felt it - a gentle tug at his core, like a pulse pulling him toward the west. The others felt it too, their bodies shifting, eyes widening slightly.

Without a word, they began to move. Naked or barely draped in soft wraps, they stepped through the open temple entrance and into the cool breath of twilight. The moss underfoot was darker now, deep purple with veins of pale gold that glowed faintly as they passed. The island reconfigured with every step - not violently, but fluidly, like a dream adapting to the dreamer.

The trees leaned away again. Flowers bloomed in spirals. Creatures hovered overhead, luminous wings flickering like liquid flame. They passed under archways made of bone-white roots and branches braided together in delicate symmetry.