The story
She taught a lone dragon how to court a mate. He picked her.
PhD candidate Thea teaches a solitary male dragon the courtship calls and the Flame Dance for her thesis, and he performs the move for her the instant he learns it. Her mentor's phone call tears the truth open: the ritual ends with the dragon dragging his chosen mate into his nest and locking her there. It is already too late. Claws rip through the roof, he takes human form to carry her off, and a fever drags her back twelve years to the young dragon she once rescued, and once caged herself.
