“Bono left his pack at seventeen. He had a difficult relationship with his father, and they quit talking.” She reached for her coat and pulled out a silver cigarette case. “Do you mind?”
I shook my head.
Harper lit up a slim cigarette, took a drag, and then stared at the lipstick on the filter. “I met Bono while running across a street on a rainy day. It was the perfect meet-cute.”
I frowned. “A meet what?”
“A meet-cute is what they call it in the movies when a couple meets in a charming or funny way. I lost a shoe in the road and huddled beneath one of those awnings. Bono dashed toward me, collected the shoe, and asked if I could be his Cinderella.” Harper smiled and tapped the cigarette ash into a marble ashtray. “He was always corny when it came to romance. He courted me the old-fashioned way. Maybe because I was older, he wanted to show me what I’d been missing my whole life. I was a bit dubious about the whole thing, but it didn’t take long for me to fall head over heels. Bono was six three, charismatic, and had a smile that got him in trouble with women. He looked like a young Heath Ledger. Do you know who that is? Bono always made me watch those old movies.” She took another puff from her cigarette. “Anyway, we didn’t have an official mating ceremony. Those are optional and more customary with packs. Going to the Council is just a formality, so we exchanged our own vows and made it exclusive.”
“How long were you together?” I asked.
Harper kept staring at her cigarette. “Six short years. Bono couldn’t start his own pack, and nobody wanted us in theirs, so we had to fend for ourselves.”
Christian set down his glass and wiped foam from his lip. “Why couldn’t you join a pack? A handsome couple, looking for a place to start a family.”
Harper stubbed out the cigarette. “We couldn’t have children.” She gave me a deliberate look. “I was born without ovaries.”
Christian tipped his head to the side. “Is that possible?”
I kicked him underneath the table. “I didn’t think packs would turn away childless couples. Shouldn’t kids be a choice and not a requirement?”
Harper indulged in more wine. “Sometimes I think they make things up just to keep the family tight. But I get it. Shifters are all about procreation to keep the Breed alive. People fall in love. People who are different animals and different Breeds. But you don’t usually see those couples in a pack, do you? Packmasters don’t want that kind of influence under their roof.”
“Now let me get this straight.” Christian cut in, his fingers steepled and a confounded look on his face. “You don’t have ovaries, or you don’t have eggs?”
Her lips thinned. “Ovaries.”
“And what about your other lady parts? Do you have a uterus?”
I regarded him for a moment. “Do I know you?”
Harper adjusted the silver watch on her wrist. “I don’t know how to spell it out for you that wouldn’t involve a whiteboard. Honey, I was born with a penis.”
Christian stroked a hand over his beard. “Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph. You don’t say? And your beau didn’t mind?”
Harper chortled and shook her head at me. I had suspected her secret based on a few physical clues, but I wasn’t certain until she confirmed it. Christian seemed less embarrassed about his faux pas than he was curious.
She leaned back and dusted a rogue ash off her black dress. “Bono knew from the beginning. You can’t hide a shoe size.”
Christian gave her a crooked smile. “I’ve known a few women in my time with large hooves.”
Attempting to shut Christian up, I asked, “Do people know about you, or do you keep that private?”
Harper pinched the stem of her wineglass. “Admittedly, most can’t tell. I was born a girl in a male body, and as I got older, people started calling me a girl. I didn’t grow up in a pack. My mother wanted to shield me from all the hate, but to be honest, I never felt any until I mated Bono.”
“Why’s that?”
“I took a virile male out of the mating pool. We wanted kids but obviously couldn’t have them. I went through extensive surgery, but that doesn’t fix the problem.” She waved her hand around as she spoke. “Some packs didn’t want us because of the controversy. Others were afraid it might upset the single women.Heaven forbid.I suppose we could have tried other cities, but frankly, I was tired of the rejection. We didn’t need that negativity in our relationship.Ididn’t grow up in a pack, and I turned out fine. Bono grew up in a pack, so that was all he knew. We had a long talk, and I convinced him we could make it on our own. Bono suggested getting a kid off the black market, but I was against it.”
“Is that so?” Christian asked, not hiding his skepticism.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not just saying that because of you. Bono could have children, so it didn’t make sense to acquire someone else’s child. But he also didn’t want to have sex with another woman. It would complicate things. We talked to a Relic, but in vitro fertilization wasn’t his specialty. Aside from that, it’s impossible to find a Shifter who’s willing to carry someone’s baby and give it away. It’s not in our nature. That meant finding a woman who wasn’t in a pack and had no desire to join one. A secret like that would ruin her. Anyhow, we never got that far. Bono died.” Harper’s lip quivered as she stared at the last drops in her wineglass. “It would have been nice to have a piece of him left behind.”
“I’m sorry.” I lowered my eyes for a moment to offer sympathy before delving into the details we really needed to know. “How did he die?”
“Watching TV. He was alive one minute, and the next…” She shook her head. “I’d gone into the kitchen to get ice cream and then found him slumped over. I thought maybe he’d nodded off or was playing a prank, but his eyes— When you see a dead person’s eyes, you just know. They don’t always close.”
I furrowed my brow. “He was just watching TV?”
