Chapter 1743

The air shimmered with golden heat as they lay entangled in one another, their bodies still slick with sweat and glowing faintly in the filtered light. Jude closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to listen. The heartbeat of the island had changed. It no longer called to him with questions or pulled at him with yearning. It beat in rhythm with his own - one pulse, one breath, shared between twelve radiant women and the man who had become their root.

Rose lay half atop him, her leg draped lazily over his thigh, her cheek against his shoulder, the curve of her smile pressed into his skin. "Feel that?" she murmured.

He nodded. "It's not just the island anymore."

"It's us," Lucy said, from his other side, fingers idly tracing the trail of light along his chest. "We're part of it now."

Sophie sat upright, her golden hair a wild halo around her face. "No. It's part of us."

She sounded calm, certain. And no one challenged it.