Chapter 1533

They moved together, wrapped around Jude one by one, each joining the circle of light. Grace pressed her lips to his spine. Natalie whispered her name against his chest.

Zoey came last, kneeling between his legs with that same familiar fire in her eyes. But when she straddled him, when she lowered herself onto him, the fire softened into something reverent.

"You've always been ours," she said, moving with slow perfection. "We just didn't know what it meant."

He kissed her. Again. And again. Until her glow matched the others.

When it was done, Jude lay at the center of them, the tree's light pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. They curled around him - Lucy tucked against his right, Sophie to his left, Emma at his chest, Zoey and Grace draped across his legs, Stella and Scarlet curled against his thighs, Natalie and Susan resting near his shoulders, and Rose lying directly beside him, her fingers laced with his.