Hi all! Thank you for being patient. I'm sorry this update has taken so long. Work is exhausting and words don't happen very well when you're exhausted. But when I heard Melizabethweek2k19 was happening, I knew I wanted to finish this! So thank you all for your favorites, follows, and reviews. The praise is so heartwarming, and has really kept me going in these challenging times. With no further ado, here you go!

*I do not own The Seven Dealy SIns / Nanatsu no Taizai.

**Warning: full lemon / M rating / smut below.

She didn't know what had drawn the word mate to her lips. Perhaps because Meliodas had used it earlier? Though she didn't quite grasp the definition, it resonated with her somewhere in the recesses of her soul. She could tell it certainly meant something to him, by the way she could feel a fresh roll of turbulence in her mind and the skip in his heartbeat under her palm.

A breath passed between them where he beheld her in dumfounded awe, the word hanging in the air between them, before the blackness swirled back into his eyes with renewed vigor. Then he was against her again, dragging growls and skin and hellblaze across her skin. Somewhere in the onslaught she could hear the broken syllables of her name tumbling from his lips, and feel the gentle tickling sensation as he tucked a few digits into the hem of her underwear. Her mind was reeling, trying to take in all of the sensations at once while also hyper fixating on the progress of her demon slowly dragging her last vestige of clothing down her body.

The white panties held a bit of lace at the hem, decorating her pale moonlit skin as Meliodas tugged the cloth down her legs. He paused again there, his expression all heady awe and his nose twitching slightly. "Pomegranate and arousal," the familiar voice settling in the corner of her mind supplied. She meant to question it, but then Meliodas was leaning forward to place his lips again the inside of her knee while dragging his warm roughened palms slowly up her thighs, towards an aching, throbbing juncture.

Elizabeth forgot to breathe during the transit, but when his probing fingers finally met their destination, a hot sensation streaked through her womb. It was just a gentle drag of his fingertips over the edge of her lower lips, but the gasp drawn from her lungs felt like the life leaving her body, only to be replaced with ache and need. Another slow drag, this one dipping a centimeter deeper to part the lips and catch some of the moisture gathered there, and a primal part of her suddenly knew that this was what she her body was needing, seeking, craving more of. Another pass, a touch deeper still so as to tease the entrance of a cavern never previously explored. She couldn't help it; her hips chased the motion by briefly tipping upward.

Meliodas growled, though in warning or in praise was beyond her. Perhaps beyond him too. Her demon had been occupying his lips against the insides of her legs, but as she chanced a glance down her body with a half-lidded gaze, she spied his demon mark blazing raggedly against the whole of his forehead and his abyss-black eyes fixated on her most intimate area. His free hand shifted to press against the tops of her hips, effectively holding her in place, before making another pass. This time, a single digit snuck partway in, breaching a threshold previously untried. "Well, in reality we passed that threshold long ago." It didn't matter, the sensation was dizzying. Her chest was shuddering now. Why couldn't she seem to get a breath?

"Breathe, love." Her knight's voice punctuated the lust-laden air. How could she, with his finger halfway up her vagina? She could feel herself squeezing against the intrusion, foreign yet desired. Why had he stopped again?

His face was suddenly up near hers, eyes dark and commanding. "Elizabeth, look at me. Breathe, mate." Her eyes traced his, pulling out of the heady fog enough to force a gulp air into her lungs. Meliodas smiled down at her and rewarded her with another kiss on her lips. Alternating dragging his teeth against her lips and slipping his tongue against hers, her focus shifted in attempt to return his ministrations. Once the death grip she held against his intrusion lessened somewhat, he began to slowly pull out and push in again.

Though gentle, the sensation still left her feeling wound too tightly. The second time he pulled all the way out to draw a figure eight around a bundle of nerves near the top of the opening with his wet fingertip, then press back in again. Her hips tried to chase the feeling, but his other hand against her hipbone held her place. A third time and he repeated the motion, this time sliding his finger farther so his knuckles pressed against her, followed by a gentle rocking motion to grind his hand against her while curling his finger somewhere. She gasped, breaking the seal against his lips in a hollow, wordless moan. Goddesses, this alone felt so amazing, and he only had a finger inside her. How would she ever hope to hold up to more?

The thought was chased away as he now freed lips busied themselves in that sensitive space just above her collarbone, that same spot where her neck met her shoulders. A firm nip chastised the thought, followed by a growl and a kiss to the same patch of skin. He pumped gently in and out again and again, his breath fanning hotly against her while he dragged demon-sharp canines up the column of her neck in a series of nips and open-mouthed kisses. Was he getting faster? The change was too gradual to tell, her mind couldn't hold onto such questions for long in this state.

"Do you like this, Elizabeth?" Her demon purred into her ear, breath fanning there. Receiving no immediate response as surely words were well beyond her capabilities by now, he circled his tongue along the edge of her ear and placed a kiss where her jaw met her earlobe, followed by another swirl of his finger around her clit. Wetness and heat were soaking his finger and she mewled, unexpectedly frustrated by the missing intrusion but electrified with each circling pass to the sensitive nub.

"Because it sounds like you do." His voice was roughened by a hinted growl, low and heavy with lust, velvety with promise, dark with power, and all sorts of things Elizabeth's mind could not begin to place. His lips were against hers again, shoving his tongue roughly into her mouth while shoving his finger roughly back into her canal. It pulled a high, keening sound from her throat, a sound he greedily swallowed into the kiss. The intrusion was more now: two fingers? The stretch was uncomfortable but delicious, the sensation of stretching as he drew in and out of her again and again unexpectedly welcome. Like an itch was finally beginning to be scratched, or the fire in her womb finally being attended to. It was too much and not enough all at once. As she went submissive against his face, allowing him to dominate the kiss, her hips bucked against his hand with renewed vigor.

With a dark tsk, he halted his movement and pulled back far enough to look down at her face. Her eyes fluttered open, beholding her demon's smirking visage. "Eager, aren't we?" he goaded her, even though she could feel the desire thrumming barely restrained in his veins and see his engorged excitement nestled between his legs.

Her hips rocked against his hand again, his fingers still impaling her. He allowed her three more passes, scissoring his fingers to stretch her and pull another moan from her lips, before the free hand against her hip bones held her fast. The moan turned into an irritated sound as she flexed beneath him, her muscles clenched bowstring tight, but the hand against her was as unyielding as before. She looked at him, dual colored eyes foggy with lust and her expression confused.

"You've gotten a taste, quite literally even," he hummed from above her. "If you want more, you need to ask."

Elizabeth squeaked. Ask? As if he had a choice, his arousal was as obvious as hers. But despite the darkness on his skin and in his voice, his full demon heritage blazing proudly, he had not fallen into animalistic instincts. It was clear his faculties were much less… encumbered than hers at the moment. Putting her at a disadvantage, considering she'd relinquished that long ago.

He pulled his hand out from between her legs, dragging the moist digits teasingly past her clit before inserting them in between his lips. She watched, fascinated, the blaze in her womb wet and hot and needing something back in between her legs to give her the satisfaction she had only begun to taste.

Quite aware her eyes were on him, Meliodas took his time to lick both digits for a heavy moment, then turned to fit his hips between hers. Her legs parted to rest on either side of him. His erection was hot and velvety, pressed lengthwise against her folds. He hissed, feeling her moist heat placed skin to skin against the place he needed her most, gripping her hip more tightly to keep her in place as she went to rock against him in seek of friction.

He tsked again, void black eyes fixing on hers and licks of flame twisting over and off his skin. "Go on, Elizabeth," he drew out her name in that way he knew would get her. He leaned closer, pressing their chests together so every inch of skin was in contact. "Ask me. Beg me."

Maybe this was his instincts after all. Though gentle and loving this whole time, her demon had surely made it clear that he was the dominant one in this encounter. If her face could get any redder, it would, but she was well past embarrassment at this point. She tried to buck again, and felt his hand flex against her hipbone and hellblaze swirl from his hand against her skin. She whined against the fizzing sensation, rewarded only by an impatient twitch from his cock against her needy folds.

"Elizabeth…" he growled testily. She could feel it again, unquestionably familiar in the corners of her mind. Her demon needed to hear this, needed her to tell him it was okay to proceed while needing to dominate her completely. But oh, how was she to form words in a state like this?

She licked her suddenly dry lips, trying to summon whatever she needed to make words happen. He loved her, she didn't need to be more than she already was to have him love her, so she could do this much, right? The hand not fastened to her side drifted up to comb gently through her long silver hair. The loving motion sent tingles down her scalp to hear heart and to her aching center. Goddesses, was there any way he could touch her and not send her into a lust-filled craze? She exhaled, the space between them suddenly smaller as his face drew close again to hers.

"Mate, Elizabeth, do it. Say please."

Her voice was barely a whisper, a motion of lips with hardly any sound behind it. "Please."

The rumble from before returned, vibrating against her skin. "Please, who?"

"Please… Meliodas."

He kissed her then, all passion and love in his lips and in his heart. And he tilted his hips so that his tip pressed against her aching core. Another growl and a kiss, and he began to press forward. He was trying to keep her attention away from the intrusion, she could tell, but that was perhaps one of her last coherent thoughts as just the head of his cock entered her.

It was large, too large, unbelievably hot, stiff, unyielding, stretching, and all sorts of things all at once. Elizabeth shuttered, her voice gone again in a gasp. Her arms shifted to wrap around his shoulders like a vice, one hand sinking into her demon's wild blonde locks in an effort to ground herself against the invasion. Meliodas made a strangled sound in the back of his throat, the feeling of finally being inside her but just the tip was both heavenly and excruciating. He had to get her to relax so he could push further inside, the resistance his goddess was putting up was too great.

"Say it again," the demon ordered. His tone held no room to oppose. She could feel it, he would have her surrender to him, and do so over and over again.

She swallowed thickly, eyes closed and face buried into the crook of his neck. He smelled like sex and power. He smelled like her mate.

"Please, Meliodas."

He pulled out and pushed a little further into her, the stretching more intense. The rumbling growling purr returned to his chest. Oh, how he loved the sound of those words tumbling from her lips. The sweet, desperate submissiveness of the please. And his name. His true name, no titles or honorifics, nothing but just him and him alone.

"Again."

"Please, Meliodas." The words were shifting her focus from the invasion to her need. And this time when he pulled out and pushed in further still, the satisfaction and pleasure was returning. She was wet and warm and welcoming and he was filling her up. Her walls released and flexed against him inside of her, the sensation of him brushing certain parts of her as she was shifting, tilting, flexing, positively glorious.

"You are mine, Elizabeth." He pulled out- her walls fluttering around him- and pushed back in so he was sheathed to the hilt, all the way inside. She cried out in indistinct syllables that sounded vaguely like his name. The words sent a zing through her, but more so she was focused on the way he felt buried completely inside her, hot and rigid and sinful. Her legs had spread wide. Her ankles folded around his ass. Her lips were spread along the base of his shaft. His balls were warm against the base of her opening. He felt like a rod inside her, the tip pressing up against something. Her womb? Some other spot of pleasure?

Meliodas had frozen, feeling her take it all on while he was trying to do the same. But her walls were hot and wet and flexing. If he just stayed like this she would surely undo him. But she had stopped moans and wails in favor of ragged panting, and the demon would have her continue her sinful song, especially if it meant saying his name a few more times.

He began moving again, a slow undulation of in and out. Elizabeth clutched at him, along for the ride. She shifted her face from his shoulder to his neck, her breath panting across his skin. Another low moan dragged past her lips, far too quiet for his taste. He teased his hands up both sides pausing to grasp and knead her breasts, followed by a more forceful thrust. Her moan tilted on its end in a higher pitch. Better. Continuing his tantalizing slow pace, he traced up her arms to unwind them from the death grip on his hair and pin them above her head.

"Say it again, mate."

All she could muster was his name in broken syllables. "Mel-io-das…"

Oh did he like the sound of that. Her reward was a hitch in the rhythm has he slowly rode her. She strained against where her hands were pinned, stretched out for her demon to see. Her hips messily twitched and bucked in attempt to meet his, but for the occasional stutter, his hips kept steady, slow, painfully slow.

"Please," she repeated. "Please. More."

His control weakened. He wanted to draw this out, wanted her to set the pace where she was comfortable by making her beg and ask for more rather than offering it too early, and it was working. Why not reward his lovely little goddess? She felt his thought pass through mind like a birds wing, and then she was shifting and the room was spinning. Her demon changed positions in an instant, one hand on her hips holding them together and the other pinning her wrists behind her back. He was sitting on the edge of the bed now, his feet planted on the floor and his cock spearing upwards inside of her. He was deeper now, almost painfully so, but the feeling only made her core weep and her body blaze. Seated on his dick and legs spread on either side of his hips against the bed, her breath caught in another high pitched wail.

The hand on her hips guided her up and down, providing strength and support since her own legs had turned to jelly. She wanted to grab his shoulders, but his other hand held them fast to the small of her back. She may be on top of him now, but she was still dominated. She continued to bob, the sensation of spearing herself onto his hard shaft so unbelievable. In this position, he was brushing that spot even more, every few of her unpracticed thrust managing to hit in just the right way to make it happen.

She was moaning again, a high pitched keening sound now. He pulled her wrists a little, bending her shoulders back in an arch so her breasts thrust forward, her neck extended, and her hair cascaded in a silver waterfall behind her. As she ground out her own shuddering, uneven, delicious rhythm in on his dick, her demon busied himself nibbling her neck, shoulders, and breasts. Demon-sharp canines teased her skin and her nipples, each spot yielding more fire in her womb and little whimpers from her lips.

"You are mine. You always have. You always will be. My Elizabeth. My mate." He growled darkly into her breasts, fanning the flames even higher. She tried to pierce herself with his cock, coming down more and more forcefully, seeking something she couldn't name. She opened her eyes, seeing only the roiling blackness of his hellblaze cocooning them inside. When had that happened?

"Say it, mate. Say that you're mine."

She didn't hesitate, the next moan brought life to her voice. "I'm yours."

She felt like she was playing with fire. The demon had seized her soul as she was surrendering it. But in return, she could feel him surrendering his own. She seated herself again more forcefully, chasing those flames and but feeling that something just out of reach.

"Beg, Elizabeth," he commanded. She could feel him twitching inside of her. "I'll give you anything. Give in and ask."

She shoved downward again, spearing herself over him, feeling him fill her in a borderline painful way. No, she was almost there. She did it again, feeling him just barely brush over that spot inside of her again.

Her demon growled at her resistance. He gripped her hip and thrust up with her, causing her to cry out loudly. He pulled her wrists back just a little further, arching her deeper, and thrust again, hitting that spot more solidly. Oh, he knew how to give it to her. He did it again, proving it to her beyond any doubt. And then he froze, held her in place with the hand fastened still to her hip to keep her from continuing.

"Go on, Elizabeth." The sound of her name on his lips against her breasts, followed by fervent kisses against her sex-flushed skin, the feeling of her wetness dripping from their point of joining, the way he was seated up to the hilt through her core, stiff and unmoving and commanding- he knew how to get to her. He had such power over her. Part of her didn't want to back down, she was so close. And she knew he was close too, could see it in the way his chest rose and fell with every pant and in the edge of desperation in his demand.

"Elizabeth…" he growled a warning again against the junction of her shoulder and her neck, the same spot as before. She tried to shift, to move over him like before, but she was no competition to his strength. Meliodas could feel his little goddess testing him, though, his demon raging for surrender. He set his teeth against her neck again, with no pressure, as a threat. She whined, he could feel it under his lips.

Arched backwards, hands pinned behind her, teeth against her throat, and trapped with a demon in a cocoon of agitated hellblaze, Elizabeth knew she was in a bind. He thrust once more against her, against that spot inside her that sent fire through her veins, as if reminding her exactly what he could provide, if only she acquiesced to his command. The movement drew a high wail from her lips, frustrated and desperate.

"Please, Meliodas!"

His pleased growl at her surrender reverberated throughout their little bubble of darkness. He shifted the two of them, the room spun again, and she was underneath him, her chest pressed against a mess of bedsheets and her demon somewhere behind her. He grasped her hips and a warning whispered through her mind. Then he impaled her onto his dick.

She wailed, long and high and needy as finally, finally he rubbed firmly against that spot. Her ass cheeks were pressed up against him, his one hand still firmly gripping her hips, but the other released to ghost up her spine.

"Was that so hard, mate?"

He thrust again, hard now, and again she made that sound. Was this reward for surrendering or punishment for taking so long? His free hand went down and up her naked spine once more before dipping gently into her wealth of silver hair and encouraging her to arch backwards again. Leaning forward, he whispered darkly into her ear, "Both."

He thrust into her again, hard but still not fast enough for her taste. Bowed backwards and underneath him, though, she was at his mercy and thankful for it: each agonizing thrust was hitting that wonderful spot that had her seeing stars. And as she surrendered underneath him, pliant and receiving to his treatment, his pace slowly picked up speed. As his force increased, he let go of her hair to avoid hurting her and went to teasing her: grabbing her ass, groping her breasts, sending little tendrils of darkness into her skin. Elizabeth wailed her pleasure to the heavens, her anthem joined by her demon lovers own growls and moans.

"Mine, Elizabeth."

"I'm yours!"

His thrusts were frantic now, both of them careening towards that something that she was desperate for. She could feel his balls bouncing against her clit from this angle, both hands now holding her ass firmly in place. She stretched underneath him, hands fisted in the linens in front of her while her ass tilted higher in askance. He was fucking her, he was making love to her, he was worshiping her, they were standing on some sort of precipice to something together.

"Please! Meliodas!"

It felt like a detonation. He planted himself hard and fast into her as something hot and liquid shot against that spot in her and into her womb, and then she was crying out as heat flooded her insides and rushed from her core to her fingertips. She tightened around him and convulsed as he rocked tiny, deep-seated thrusts that shot more bits liquid fire inside of her. The world narrowed to the point of their joining, and something in her mind clicked into place. She could feel him clearly now, his thoughts, his emotions, and the sensation of him inside her and her surrounding him. It felt like she was more, like a limb she hadn't known she'd been missing had finally been replaced. She felt a bond in her soul that had always been unknowingly silent but was now finally there.

As the two came down from their high, the darkness surrounding them parted and disappeared, leaving them again in their shared bedroom. Meliodas drew himself from her, leaving her feeling surprisingly hollow after being so filled up before. The results of their joining dripped down the insides of her thighs. He never let go of her, though. She could sense a note of worry from the demon, as he oh so gently lifted her to stand.

She sighed, the two of them naked in each other's arms and completely spent. She was leaning into him, suddenly boneless and weak. She wanted to say something, anything, but words just weren't happening after something like that.

"Are you okay?" The sound of her knight's voice, shaky and uncertain, had her blinking her eyes open to look at her new mate. He was sweaty, hair messier than usual, and emerald green had returned to his gaze. She could tell he was almost too nervous to look at her after treating her like that, but he forced himself to not look away. Instead he was examining her, hands drifting and gently prodding as his eyes assessed her. She was glistening with sweat, skin flushed. There were light bruises and red teeth marks dotting her moon-bright skin. But the sensation of goddess magic and their mating was buzzing pleasantly in her veins. She couldn't muster herself to speak though, so she did her best to smile at him and think, "I'm okay."

His eyes darted to hers, his expression set briefly in surprise before settling somewhere that seemed contented. "Good. Well, let's get you cleaned up."

She hummed an agreement, and he guided her to the bathroom. Her knight made sure she had a firm grip on the sink counter before closing the door behind her, giving her a little privacy. Her legs trembling slightly from the exertion of keeping up with the demon during sex, she managed to clean herself up enough up that she didn't feel gross, brushed her teeth, and returned to the room.

Meliodas was at her side the moment she was back, holding her around her waist as he guided her back to the bed. Maybe it was a little unnecessary, but she didn't mind the gesture. He wordlessly tucked her in under the covers, kissed her temple with a "Be right back," and shut the bathroom door behind himself. It wasn't much later that he was nestling with her, naked under the covers.

Already the heaviness of her post-orgasm mind was drawing her into sleep. She only prayed that this wasn't a dream, and that she would wake up tomorrow with her mate still there cuddled next to her. Meliodas pulled her closer, sensing the doubts, and nuzzled reassuringly into her silver hair.

"I love you," she whispered again, her voice quieted by sleep.

"I love you too."