“What’s his name?”
Ali hesitated. “Not yet,” she said finally. “Soon. I’ll tell you soon.”
Grey nodded. “All right,” he said, but she could feel his muscles coiled for action, ready to chase down the man who’d hurt her and make him pay for what he’d done.
No one had ever tried to make him pay.
She wanted to finish first, though. She forced herself to swallow her tears down and keep going. “I was such an idiot. I believed everything he said. It never even occurred to me that it could have been a line. But then he told me he hadn’t meant it.”
“What happened?” Grey asked. He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking under her eye, wiping away the wetness tha
t had accumulated there.
“I went home, I was crying. I told my family what happened. Paul was there, and he…” She swallowed. “He told me that M— My boyfriend was right. That mates were just a made-up fantasy shifter boys used to get girls into bed.”
Grey pulled her in close again, his hand cupping the back of her head. “That’s a lie,” he said. “No shifter should say that. We believe that our love is strong enough to last forever.”
Our love is strong enough to last forever. Ali felt tears brimming again. “I don't think my ex understands what it is to love someone,” she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder. “I’ve never once seen him do something because he cared about somebody else. Only about himself.”
“Then it makes sense that he wouldn’t understand. Having a mate is about caring for someone more than you care for yourself. Wanting to protect them, keep them safe and happy.”
Ali felt a warm thrill run through her at his words, chasing away some of the coldness that the memories had brought.
Because when Grey said that, he meant he wanted to protect her, and keep her safe and happy.
“I used to think about my mate,” Grey continued. His voice was low, almost hypnotic, and Ali pressed her face into his neck and listened. “Where she lived, what she was like. If she was all right without me.”
His arms tightened around her. “I used to wish I could find her as soon as possible so that I could be there for her. I used to worry that she might not be okay.”
He kissed her softly behind her ear. “I guess I was right to worry.”
Ali’s breath was caught in her chest. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to speak again.
“I’m so sorry that I wasn’t here for you earlier, Alethia.”
He kissed her hair, her forehead, and she tilted her head back so he could brush butterfly kisses over her eyelids and lay a soft kiss directly on her mouth.
Finally, she found her words. “My mother used to say something to me.”
“Tell me.” He kissed her again, so gently.
“She liked to read.” Ali’s chest tightened again at the thought of her mother, and her soft voice and hands. She’d died almost ten years ago. “She was always reading, every chance she got. Old books, sometimes. So she would tell me about my name.”
“Alethia.” His voice caressed it, like it was something precious.
And it was. Ali had just thought it was broken, like everything else.
“It’s Greek. And she would tell me at night, before I went to sleep, Alethia means truth. And she would mean different things. If I was in trouble for something, she’d use it to remind me that I always needed to tell the truth. Sometimes,” Ali blinked a few times, “she’d just say, Alethia, you are my truth.”
“That’s a beautiful thing to say to your daughter.” Grey was watching her with a look in his eyes. Was that love? Was that what love looked like on someone’s face?
Ali brought herself back into the story. “So the truth has always been important to me. And I used to think that I was so good at finding it, that because I was named after it, I could always tell.
“So when my boyfriend lied to me, and I fell for it so hard— When I had built up this whole future for us in my head, and I thought we were going to be together forever, but it was all based on a lie…” Her voice broke.
She looked up at Grey, and met his eyes. They were a soft silver that seemed to go on forever.
“I sort of lost myself for a while. I started going by Ali, not Alethia, because I didn’t think I was worthy of calling myself the truth, after that. And I dated a lot.” She bit her lip. “A lot. I figured it didn’t matter, since it was all a lie anyway.”