Chapter 1739
The temple opened to them, its interior a swirling garden of color and light. Vines hung like curtains. Pools bubbled with golden waters. A long bed of moss stretched across the center, large enough for all of them.
Alara gestured to it. "Here, you will sleep when you wish. Love when you wish. Dream when the island calls you. It is yours now."
They stepped inside.
The moment they entered, the air embraced them. The moss lifted slightly, as if welcoming their weight. They lay down slowly, touching, kissing, wrapping around one another - not out of urgency but out of sheer joy. Jude kissed Lucy first, slow and deep. Then turned to Rose. Then to Zoey. Hands reached for him from every side. Every mouth tasted him. Every body touched him.
But this time, it wasn't a ritual.
It was celebration.
Their moans were music. Their movements were dance. He was inside Grace when Susan rode his mouth. Sophie kissed him while Stella caressed his thighs. Natalie whispered his name in a chant while Scarlet rocked atop him in slow circles. The room glowed brighter with each climax, each pulse of shared breath and love.
Hours passed.
They did not stop.
They didn't need to.
Their bodies were renewed by the island now. Every release made them stronger. Every kiss wove them deeper together. By the time they collapsed again, the temple itself was shining.
And the island sighed in satisfaction.
Alara stood at the doorway once more. "The sanctuary is alive again."
Jude raised his head. "Will we be alone here?"
"No," she said. "The island will bring more. Someday. Until then, you will live. You will love. You will teach."
She stepped back.
And vanished into mist.
The temple sealed behind her with a hum of pleasure.
Jude looked at his wives - all twelve of them, glowing and smiling and tangled with him on a bed made of the island itself.
He exhaled.
And whispered, "We're home."
The temple pulsed gently with a warm, golden light, responding to their breath, their heartbeat, their presence. Jude lay at the center of it all, surrounded by his wives, his skin still tingling from their shared ecstasy. The moss beneath him seemed to cradle his spine, cool and plush, while above, delicate bioluminescent vines glowed like constellations captured in a ceiling of green. He closed his eyes for a moment, just to feel everything. Every hand that had touched him. Every body that had moved with his. Every word whispered in passion and promise.
Lucy's fingers traced slow circles on his chest, her golden eyes watching him with lazy affection. "It feels like we've crossed something we can't come back from," she said, her voice a purr.
"We have," Rose murmured from his other side, brushing her lips against his jaw. "And I wouldn't go back even if I could."
The others began to stir one by one, their limbs stretching, brushing over each other with familiar ease. Grace was nestled against Susan, her hair a curtain of curls over Susan's shoulder. Emma lay with her head in Sophie's lap, while Stella and Scarlet lay curled like mirrors of one another, hands linked between their bodies. Zoey lounged nearby, her fingers playing idly through Natalie's hair.
They looked like goddesses in repose - bare, glowing, adorned only in the soft shimmer of the temple's light and the sheen of their own skin. Jude sat up slowly, drawing a collective hum of attention from them all.
"We're not just surviving anymore," he said softly. "We're becoming something new."
Sophie nodded, her fingers combing slowly through Emma's hair. "It feels… like destiny."
"Or a dream we built together," Stella added, sitting up and folding her legs beneath her. "We made this."
Rose smiled, lazy and luminous. "The question is, what now?"
As if in answer, a soft tone echoed through the air. The vines above them trembled slightly, parting in slow motion to reveal a sky that shimmered with two suns now - one the usual golden orb, the other a glowing disc of pale silver, hanging low on the horizon like an unblinking eye.
Natalie blinked. "That wasn't there before."
"The island's changing again," Lucy said, rising to her knees. "Responding to us."
"It's giving us a new cycle," Emma murmured. "Daylight and silverlight."
Jude stood, taking in the view as the temple's heart opened around them. In the distance, new growth shimmered. Trees with blossoms they had never seen before. Vines that curled toward the sky instead of down. Pools of water that glowed violet and deep blue. The sanctuary had triggered a new phase of the island's evolution. It had awoken fully.
And they were at the center of it.
"Let's go see," Zoey said, already standing and stretching, her muscles moving like liquid under skin.
They dressed in the lightest of ways - thin wraps made of the temple's moss, woven effortlessly with vines and silk-like threads that shimmered in the new light. It wasn't modesty. It was ritual. Beauty. A way of honoring the land that now answered to them.
They left the sanctuary as a single wave of motion, bare feet padding over soft, glowing moss, their laughter echoing through the trees. As they walked, the forest opened around them. Flowers bloomed in their wake. Creatures they'd never seen before peeked from the branches - some with translucent wings, others with fur that pulsed with light, none of them afraid.
When they reached the ridge that overlooked the river, they stopped.
Because the river had changed.
Where once it flowed in lazy curves of clear water, it now glittered with floating blossoms, each one glowing with a light that matched the suns above. The banks were dotted with smooth stones carved with unfamiliar symbols, as though the island itself had written something just for them.
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.