Free To Protect a Warrior by Immortal Angel

 
    Chapter One
     
    Hannah beat her fist against the door one more time. “Let me out! I demand to speak to my father! You can’t imprison me this way!” She’d been in this holding cell for nearly an hour. At least they’ve left me alone. What are they doing to Liam?
    Finally, she heard a key in the lock. Dean Sufters opened the door and calmly walked in, her high heels clicking on the tile.
    “He didn’t do it.” Hannah forced herself to keep her voice level. Even though she wanted nothing more than to scream in Dean Sufters’s face.
    The older woman stared at her with concern she knew was feigned. And gestured for her to sit at the tiny interrogation table.Hannah took a seat, and Dean Sufters sat across from her, folding her hands on the table gracefully.
    “Miss Stowe. There’s no need to worry about any of this. The Keltair is being questioned, that’s all.”
    Hannah moved her chair back. The dean flinched at the horrible squealing sound as the metal chair scraped the white tile. Hannah stood and placed her hands on the table in front of her, leaning in. “He’s the reason I’m alive right now, so if I don’t get some answers, I’ll be calling my father. Fleet Admiral Stowe, remember? And I guarantee you don’t want me to do that.”
    For the first time in this thirty-minute discussion, Dean Sufters looked nervous. She smoothed the sides of her short, perfectly sculpted hair in ananxious gesture. “Please, sit down. The whole academy is still in lockdown. Even if I wasn’t suspicious of the Keltair, he’d need to stay exactly where he is until it’s deemed safe.”
    Her answer just wasn’t good enough.
    “I want to remind you,” Hannah’s lip curled as she spoke. “The Keltairs aren’t our enemies anymore. And Liam’s presence here only helps to strengthen our alliance.So if—“
    The dean stood up to match my height. “Little girl—” she started, her tone condescending.
    Like hell Hannah was going to let her finish. “You’ve got two minutes to free Liam, then I contact my father.”
    Her mouth snapped shut, even as she raised her chin.
    They glared at each other for a long minute.
    The dean’s assistant, Stevril, opened the door to our tiny questioning room and closed it behind him before speaking. “The Keltair ship has left the atmosphere and is being pursued in space. The whole of the Turonga’s fleet has taken to the skies, but there are no signs of other enemy ships. The emperor has degraded the threat levelfrom a code red to a code orange.”
    And that’s when it hitHannah. Both the dean and the people of this planet thought they were facing an all-out war with the Keltairs again. Their extreme reaction suddenly made sense to her. If the warlike aliens had decided to break the treaty, and Turonga was simply the first planet in their path of destruction, the loss of life here would likely be immense. Earth had allowed their most prestigious Starflight Academy to be built here because it was considered so safe at the moment, but no one could guarantee they’dbe safe indefinitely from the wrath of such violent people.
    “How much of the school was destroyed?” Hannah asked.
    Stevril wrinkled his piglike nose, turning his gaze from Hannah back to the dean. “Shall I take the school out of lockdown?”
    “Yes,” she answered, and then after a moment of hesitation, “What did they destroy?”
    He looked at Hannah again with his arrogant stare, his dusty orange skin darkening with his changing mood.
    Stupid Purtos. The creatures were organized and fiercely loyal, which is why they often assisted powerful people, but their lack of flexibility was a downfall. Hadn’t he picked up on the dean’s reaction to the young cadet? Did he have any idea that Hannah’s father could destroy his career and his life with one interplanetary call?
    “This is Fleet Admiral Stowe’s daughter,” the dean explained slowly. “You may speak openly in front of her…because I’m sure