"Get out."
Her brows shoot up. "Excuse me?"
Ragon straightens.
"Get out of my kitchen. You don't respect it. You don't respect me. You don't get to be in here."
Drake appears behind Ragon, face tense. "Okay. Let's all take a breath."
"No. I'm done breathing. I'm done pretending it doesn't hurt every time someone new walks in and acts like my life is a rough draft for them to edit."
The tears are coming now. I blink fast, but they spill over anyway.
"I'm not your client. I'm not your omega. I don't need to be optimized. I need to be allowed to make fucking cookies for my pack without being told I'm wasting their time."
Silence.
Mel looks to Ragon like she expects him to intervene. Like she expects him to say I'm overreacting, that she's right, that it's just sugar.
He doesn't.
He looks at me.
"If you ask her to leave, I will back you. But that's not a decision you make in the middle of a fight."
"I'm not asking. I'm telling. She can stay in the house. She can sit in the living room, eat my ‘fine’ unbalanced cookies, and judge me silently if she wants. But she doesn't get to run my kitchen. Not tonight."
Mel's mouth flattens. "I don't need this. Marie, call me when you're ready to take this seriously."
She spins on her heel and stalks out.
Marie's face crumples. "I'm sorry. I didn't—"
"I know. I know you thought you were helping."
"But I wasn't."
"No. You weren't."
She winces like I slapped her.
Eli's hand lands on my shoulder. "Maybe—"
"I know. I know I'm a lot right now. I know I'm snarling at everything that moves. I know. But can I please have this?"
I look at Ragon. At Drake. At Eli.
"Can I have thisonething that's mine? Or do I have to share this too until there's nothing left that feels like me in this house?"
The three of them exchange glances. Their scents are a whirl of guilt and protectiveness and helplessness.
Finally, Ragon nods once. "The kitchen is yours. Always has been. Always will be."
His voice is steady. Certain. It steadies something in me by force.
"We will talk to Marie's cousin. And we will make it clear that if she can't respect that, she doesn't come back."
Some of the pressure in my chest eases.
