Chapter 5: Ashes in My Mouth

Chapter 5: Ashes in My Mouth

(Nayla’s POV — First Person)

I woke up with my mouth feeling like it had been stuffed with sandpaper and regret.

The ceiling above me wasn’t mine—it was Kayla’s, painted a soft blue with tiny cracks spidering toward the corners.

I groaned, rolling onto my side, clutching my pounding head.

How the hell had I gotten this drunk?

Werewolves weren’t supposed to get hangovers.

Our metabolism usually burned through liquor like paper in a bonfire.

It would take a fifth of whiskey just to get a decent buzz.

But apparently grief…

grief made everything hit harder.

I sat up slowly, clutching the blanket around me.

Every bone in my body ached.

My stomach rolled.

I needed water.

A shower.

Maybe an exorcism.

Kayla’s guest room was a mess—clothes thrown everywhere, a half-eaten slice of pizza on the nightstand, an empty water bottle lying sideways on the floor.

My dress—the red silk she made me wear—was hanging off the bedpost like a warning flag.

I groaned again and stumbled to my feet, padding toward the kitchen.

The house was quiet.

Kayla was probably still passed out.

Good. I needed a minute to piece myself together before facing her judgmental “told-you-so” smirk.

I found a glass in the cabinet, filled it with cold tap water, and chugged it like it might save my life.

It didn’t.

I pressed the glass against my forehead and closed my eyes, willing the nausea to back off.

And that’s when he slipped back into my mind.

The man at the club.

Dark eyes.

Broad shoulders.

A voice like smoke curling under a door.

I barely remembered what I’d said to him.

Barely remembered the look he’d given me when he pulled that drunk human off.

But his scent—

Moon above, I remembered that.

Clear as sunlight cutting through dirty glass.

He’d smelled like the woods.

Not the safe, suburban kind with paved trails and park benches.

The real kind.

The kind that lived on the edge of the world.

Dark earth. Wet moss. Ancient trees too stubborn to die even when the world burned around them.

He smelled like the place my wolf used to dream about before everything went wrong.

I pressed the glass harder against my forehead, breathing slow.

I didn’t know who he was.

Didn’t know what he wanted.

Didn’t even know if I’d ever see him again.

But some deep, secret part of me—

the part that still hadn’t learned better—

wanted to.

Even if it was just one more bad decision waiting to happen.

********

By two in the afternoon, the hangover was just a dull ache behind my eyes instead of a full-blown marching band.

Progress.

I was sitting cross-legged on Kayla’s couch, picking at the remains of some microwave mac and cheese, when my phone buzzed beside me.

I wiped my hands on a napkin and grabbed it.

Email Notification:

Subject: Internship Interview Invitation

From: Sterling & Cross LLP

I blinked, rereading it three times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

Sterling & Cross.

Private firm.

Big money.

Big cases.

Bigger reputations.

The kind of place that didn’t just invite people in for interviews.

You had to know someone—or be someone.

My stomach twisted.

I clicked the email open.

“Dear Miss Nayla Rayne,

We are pleased to invite you for an in-person interview regarding the legal internship position you applied for earlier this spring. Please report to our main offices tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

We look forward to meeting you.

- HR Department, Sterling & Cross LLP”

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

I dropped the phone into my lap, heart thudding too fast.

I needed a suit.

I needed copies of my resume.

I needed to not look like someone who had cried herself to sleep for three weeks straight.

I scrambled off the couch, nearly tripping over a throw pillow.

Kayla poked her head out of the bathroom, a toothbrush hanging from her mouth. “Where’s the fire?”

“I got an interview!” I shouted, half-hysterical.

She blinked. “You what?”

“Sterling & Cross! Tomorrow! I have to get home! I have to—”

I waved my arms around helplessly.

“—prepare! And shower! And find my portfolio!”

Kayla pulled her toothbrush out and grinned around the foam. “Hell yeah, bitch! Get your dreams!”

I was already grabbing my bag, shoving my feet into sneakers.

Across the bridge.

Back to my tiny studio apartment with the peeling wallpaper and the eternally broken heater.

It wasn’t much.

But it was mine.

And it had everything I needed to convince Sterling & Cross that I wasn’t a complete mess.

Because I wasn’t.

Not really.

I was still the girl who had aced every exam.

Still the girl who had a photographic memory and stacks of recommendation letters singing my praises.

Professors loved me.

Classmates hated how easy I made it look.

I should’ve been snapped up the second I graduated.

But I wasn’t.

Every application had ended in silence.

Every door had slammed shut.

Every dream had been crumbling before it even had a chance to stand.

No one said it out loud.

But they knew.

They knew I was the orphan wolf with no blood ties, no famous name, no political leverage.

And that made me disposable.

Forgettable.

Until now.

Until tomorrow.

I tightened my grip on my bag and jogged out the door.

I didn’t know why Sterling & Cross suddenly wanted to see me after months of radio silence.

But I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity.

Not this time.