The tree behind them no longer shimred violently. It glowed soft now, like candlelight, watching, satisfied. The bark bore the twelve circles and Jude’s mark at its center. Sothing had changed. Not just in them, but in the island.
When Lucy finally moved, she did it like a cat stretching across warmth, her bare thigh sliding over Jude’s as she rolled onto her belly and propped her chin up on her hands. "We’re not the sa anymore," she murmured, voice thick and dreamy.
"No," Stella agreed from behind her, curled against Grace like vines wrapped around one another. "I feel... wider. Like I go beyond my body."
"It’s her," Rose said without lifting her head from Jude’s chest. "She’s part of us now."
Sophie pressed a kiss to Jude’s shoulder. "Then what are we part of?"
Jude’s hand moved slowly over Rose’s back, fingers tracing lazy patterns. "Sothing that doesn’t want to hurt us."
"But it does want us," Zoey said, lying flat with her arms flung wide, glowing skin dappled with bits of moss and flower petals. "All of us. And now it has us."
"It’s not possession," Natalie whispered. "It’s communion. Consent."
Layla let out a low laugh. "The hottest cult initiation I’ve ever imagined."
Everyone chuckled, the sound light and soft, relaxing the thick air.
But Jude couldn’t laugh yet. His mind spun - not with fear, but with awe. His body was still humming from their shared climax, from the mont of transcendence that had surged like fire through their limbs and left sothing more behind. His veins felt electrified, and he swore he could still feel each of them - not just near, but within.
"We brought sothing back with us," he said slowly. "Or maybe we woke sothing that had always been there."
Rose lifted her head to look at him, eyes golden and calm. "You still don’t fully trust it."
"No," he said. "But I’m starting to understand why you do."
Her smile deepened, and she leaned in to kiss him again - long, slow, like she was reminding him of the way her mouth could feel like ho. "Then let us show you again."
Zoey rolled over with a lazy grin. "Already? You’re going to kill him."
"Can’t kill what’s already reborn," Lucy said, tracing a glowing finger down Jude’s stomach. "Besides, he hasn’t made love to since the basin."
Scarlet propped herself on one elbow. "And ."
"And ," Grace added with a teasing pout.
"And ," chid Stella.
Jude laughed now, the sound breaking through his tension, his head tipping back against the moss. "If I die like this, I’ll die smiling."
Sophie rolled on top of him suddenly, straddling him, her skin cool from the moss and her dark eyes burning. "Then let’s make sure your smile lasts forever."
She kissed him fiercely, hips grinding against his, and the others didn’t wait.
Their bodies closed around him again, not with urgency this ti but with tenderness. They moved slowly, deliberately, in a new rhythm - less a storm, more a tide, constant and unrelenting in its pleasure. Sophie rocked atop him as Susan and Natalie lay beside him, mouths worshipping his skin, whispering things in unison that made his stomach tighten.
Sophie arched back, riding him deep, moaning with each long slide as Zoey kissed her neck from behind, hands exploring the sweat-glossed lines of her waist. Lucy and Emma kissed beside them, their thighs pressed close, fingers tangled. When Sophie ca, she cried out Jude’s na like a spell, like a bond, and he gripped her hips until she trembled with aftershocks.
He wasn’t allowed rest.
Emma climbed atop him next, her kiss softer but more demanding, her thighs gripping him like a vice as she sank down with a gasp. "Slow," she whispered. "Let feel you all the way."
He obeyed. His hands road her back, up her spine to the knot of her hair, his mouth pressing into the sweat-slicked hollow of her throat. Her pace was hypnotic, deep and patient. Every roll of her hips sent a ripple of heat through the others. They watched, touching one another, aroused by the sight of Emma claiming him with reverent strength.
When she ca, it was silent, but the way her body locked, the way she held his gaze, made Jude shake.
Lucy followed, of course.
She pulled Emma gently away and pressed herself against Jude, kissing his lips like she was breathing in the last air left in the world. She didn’t slide onto him right away - she simply held him there, her entrance slick and ready, rubbing herself on him until they both were trembling.
And when she finally took him, her moan was pure velvet.
He lost track of ti again.
Each wife took her turn, not hurried, not greedy - offering themselves to him like a shared breath, a promise renewed. Their bodies rembered. Their mouths rembered. Even their fingertips sang with sensation. And every ti he thought he couldn’t possibly last another mont, one of them kissed him, stroked him, whispered sothing, and he rose again like fire from coals.
It was hours before they lay still once more, panting in a tangle of limbs, too sated to move, too blissfully full to speak.
Above them, the sky had changed.
The light that filtered through the trees was no longer dawn or dusk but sothing in-between. A permanent twilight. Golden-pink, endless.
Sophie sat up first, her body glistening, hair wild. "The grove isn’t just a place."
"It’s an awakening," Rose said beside her. "We’ve unlocked another layer."
Zoey reached for Jude’s hand. "The island was never sleeping. It was waiting for this."
Lucy nodded slowly. "And now it’s alive in us."
Jude looked at all of them - these won he loved, these goddesses now bonded to the pulse of sothing divine. His body throbbed with them. His soul ached in that raw, beautiful way that ca only after deep, thorough worship.
"What cos next?" he asked, his voice a little rough, a little broken.
Rose smiled and kissed his fingers. "Now we teach the island to love us back."
And sowhere far beyond the grove, a new hum began.
Not hers.
Theirs.
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